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Keeping Scott County Safe

10/27/2021

Keeping Scott County Safe

(Explanation of the Sexual and Violent Offender Registry for Scott County)

 

Scott County-With Halloween fast approaching, I just wanted to make a short statement on our efforts to keep track of the sex and violent offenders in Scott County. Everyone probably already knows we have a sexual and violent offender state registry. Both designations, sexual and violent offender are on the same registry. With that registry, Indiana State law requires that all sheriffs' offices check on all sexual and violent offenders at least once a year to make sure they are complying with state law, (this can be different in certain cases). However, I have directed the Scott County Sheriff's Deputies to do sex and violent offender checks on a quarterly basis, (every three months). Deputies check on every sex and violent offender that is listed in Scott County to make sure that they are living where they're supposed to be living and make sure that they are following all the rules that have been laid out to them by the court system. Deputy Don Campbell is assigned full time to administer our sexual and violent offender program that includes the registry. For clarification, there are two different registries, local, state and the federal registry and sometimes they may not match. The official registry for investigative purposes is the local registry located on our website.

 

We have completed over 200 sex and violent offender checks over the last year. These checks have resulted in ten arrests involving violations of the sex and violent offender registry.

 

In addition, the Scott County Sheriff's Office is one of very few, if not the only sheriff's office in the state, that sends a news release advising the citizens of a sex or violent offender that moves into Scott County. We started sending the news releases when I took office in 2019. With, all this being said it may have seemed as though Scott County was receiving an influx of registered sexual offenders and/or violent offenders, but we are not. Scott County has averaged for several years between 50 and 60 total offenders. These numbers fluctuate obviously if and when people move in or out of the county. We are at 59 now. That number only goes down as registered sex offenders are removed from the ten-year registry or as lifetime registrants pass away. It obviously goes up when someone is convicted of a crime that meets the criteria of the registry.

 

According to the state registry, some of our surrounding county's numbers are as follows, Clark County-179, Floyd County-89, Jackson County-99, Jefferson County County-60 and Jennings County-67. (Reminder, these numbers can and do change).

 

In closing, Halloween means trick or treaters hitting the road, I felt it was important to let the citizens of Scott County know what their sheriff's office was doing to keep everyone safe. The sex offender and violent offender registry, the news release alerts, and the quarterly offender checks are a tool for the public to know their surroundings to help in keeping their families and themselves safe and a reminder to the offenders of the sex and violent offenders registry of the rules they must follow.

 

As sheriff of Scott County, I promise you no other county in Indiana is taking the extra steps and monitoring the sexual and violent offender registry as we are doing to keep our citizens safe.  To view the Scott County Sex and Violent offender registry follow this link  Scott County Sheriff - Scottsburg, IN

 

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GOODIN