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Ventura County Sheriff’s Department Continues to Track and Monitor Convicted Sex Offenders through Grant Funding
By Ventura County Sheriff Department — Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
 Ventura County Sheriff's Department In the aftermath of the arrest of convicted sex offender John Albert Gardener III for the rape and murder of Chelsea King, and possible involvement in the murder of Amber DuBois, questions may have surfaced regarding how convicted sex offenders are tracked and monitored locally. Since 2006, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department has been part of a grant funded multi-jurisdictional task force dedicated to monitoring registered sex offenders. The state funded Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement (SAFE) Team for this region is a tri-county effort between San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura County, with the overall grant administration conducted by the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Department. The mission of the SAFE Program is to identify, monitor, arrest, and assist in the prosecution of habitual sexual offenders who violate the terms and conditions of their probation or parole, who fail to comply with the registration requirements of California Penal Code § 290, or who commit new sexual assault offenses through proactive surveillance and arrest of habitual sexual offenders. The tri-county region has a total of 2219 registered sex offenders. Since the inception of the SAFE Team task force through December 2009, there have been a total of 249 investigations for non-compliance with Penal Code § 290 and 2,657 monitored visits of registered sex offenders. Year to date, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department alone has processed 190 sex registrants as a requirement of California Penal Code § 290. This procedure includes interviewing, fingerprinting, and often photographing each sex registrant on an annual or monthly basis depending on the requirements. To assist in the sex registrant tracking process, Ventura County Sheriff’s Department investigators have been using a computer program known as Offender Watch for the past two years. Offender Watch was designed to aid law enforcement in tracking sex registrants while providing critical information in a concise and useful format. Offender Watch was funded through the SAFE Team grant. In addition to the SAFE Team, since September 2007, the city of Thousand Oaks has funded an investigator position designed to apprehend Internet predators. The position is currently filled by Detective Anthony Aguirre who works closely with the FBI on their sexual assault task force. To date, Detective Aguirre has conducted over 100 investigations and made numerous arrests for child pornography possession/distribution, luring minors for the purposes of sexual exploitation, and child molestation. The Sheriff’s Major Crimes Unit also has an investigator whose responsibilities include Internet predator/child pornography investigations. Most local law enforcement agencies do not have the resources, staffing or infrastructure in place to proactively monitor and conduct compliance checks of previously convicted sex offenders who have served their sentences and returned to the community. In order to ensure these individuals are complying with all aspects of the law (including Jessica’s Law and Megan’s Law), additional funding and resources are normally required. The state of California has recognized this fact and has provided funding through SAFE Team grants. The Sheriff’s Department believes this funding is critical to support public safety in this area. Date & Time: March 8, 2010 Officer Preparing Release: Captain Ross Bonfiglio (805) 654-2417 Follow-up Contact: Captain Ross Bonfiglio (805) 654-2417 mailto:ross.bonfiglio@ventura.org Approved By: Captain B. Norris Date of Release: March 8, 2010 |
