Ohio Shorthanded in Its Efforts to Monitor Sex Offenders

Ohio might be the only state in compliance with the Adam Walsh Act, but it is also entirely shorthanded in its mission to monitor local sex offenders. From Cleveland.com:

Cuyahoga County has the most sex offenders in Ohio, but only two full-time deputies regularly check on the 1,416 people considered the worst offenders.

Other large Ohio counties have fewer offenders than Cuyahoga's 3,300 but use more deputies to perform the state-mandated address verifications for Tier III offenders such as rapists. Franklin County uses five; Summit and Hamilton counties each use four.

Residents on Imperial Avenue in Cleveland never knew Anthony Sowell was a convicted sex offender until police unearthed 11 bodies from his property.

Neighbors questioned why they weren't notified by the Sheriff's Office about Sowell's violent past. He served 15 years in prison for attempted rape. Those residents never knew because Sowell moved into the house after getting out of prison in 2005 -- three years before a law took effect that would have notified neighbors about his past.

Sowell was required to register his address with deputies every three months. He did it most recently on Sept. 2. A deputy verified it Sept. 22 -- eight hours before prosecutors say Sowell attacked a woman in his home.

The two Cuyahoga County deputies who knock on doors nearly every day said the law requires them to spend considerable time checking low-level offenders instead of the most dangerous offenders.

Comments

[ieee]

I would encourage anyone who is Registered in Ohio to assist the criminal government by never helping them verify anything. Follow the laws and give them the information required by the laws, but do nothing else. Do not answer your door, your phone, whatever. That is the least these laws deserve. However, don't prevent the criminal government from even visiting your property because that helps waste a significant amount of their time and resources.