One man and a more than $68,000 grant help keep track of the 324 registered sex offenders living in Kent.
Kent Police Det. Doug Garrett has been organizing contact teams and going into the field himself for 15 years to manage the number of sex offenders who reside in the city.
“It’s interesting,” he said. “Just like other police work you get something new everyday – people moving in and out, different contacts.”
His job would not be possible without the help of a yearly grant that is funded by the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs. The King County Sheriff’s Office has been administering the grant since it began in 2010.
Prior to 2010, the police department was not funded for these activities. Level I offenders received certified letters and police followed up with house checks if offenders did not send the form back.
Now, the funds allow contact teams of two officers, sometimes including Garrett, to make unannounced and spontaneous visits to
registered sex offenders in Kent. It pays the overtime of officers who often have to approach offenders after 5 p.m. because of the offender’s work schedule.
“Truly, if we did not have the grant money, I don’t think I’d be able to keep up with the contacts,” Garrett said. “Otherwise, I’d be going out every night and doing day time checks and night time checks.”
Kent is one of the largest cities in the area and because of that has probably a larger amount of sex offenders than similarly sized cities, he said.
The city keeps growing and annexed the Panther Lake area several years ago, so Garrett and his supervisor, Sgt. Tim Lontz, anticipate staff might grow in this area.
Just like an increase in the population dictates the number of officers on the street, “we’re trying to keep pace with what we need to do and do it well,” Garrett said.
The frequency at which the police officers make contact with the sex offenders depends their status level determined by their conviction.
The lowest level, Level I offenders, get yearly visits. Level II offenders receive six month checks and Level III get a visit from the police every three months. Currently there are 23 Level III sex offenders living in Kent.
During a typical visit, officers verify the offender lives at their reported address, make sure they are abiding by all the terms of their sentence and officers get a current photograph of the offender.
“The program has produced a very high rate of compliance among the 300 plus offenders that we monitor in the City of Kent,” wrote Assistant
Chief Pat Lowery in an email. “It has also produced more accountability among those persons that maintain ‘community living facilities’ for sex offenders. The program has also provided a more reliable method of ensuring the whereabouts and behaviors of our registered sex offenders, most of whom live in complete compliance with the requirements of registration.”
Community living facilities are transition or half way houses that some offenders go to when released from jail. There are a few of these in Kent, according to Garrett.
The turnover rate is high in these places and generally sex offenders are located all over the city.
“The majority of registered offenders have lived at the same location for years,” Garrett said.
About three years ago agencies in the state got a boost from improved software that helps monitor the verification process. Online systems help notify other agencies right away if an offender is not where they’re supposed to be.
“It helps a lot, it saves time and other paperwork that you’d have to do,” Garrett said.
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