By Katherine Schiffner
Herald Writer
EVERETT — Finding out if a high-risk sex offender is moving to your neighborhood is now as easy as checking your mailbox.
The Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office is mailing out sex offender notices instead of sending them home with schoolchildren, a switch believed to be a first in Washington state.
The change has boosted awareness about offenders and reduced complaints from neighborhood residents who often weren’t getting their notices, said Joseph Beard, a Snohomish County sheriff’s detective.
For example, residents without children, who didn’t receive the notices under the old system, are now getting them in the mail, he said.
Plus, some notices handed out at school would sit for weeks in a child’s backpack, or not make it home at all.
"The biggest benefit is that the community gets the best notification possible," said Beard, a detective assigned to the sheriff’s office’s sex offender registration unit.
The notices alert residents when a Level 3 or Level 2 offender is moving into the area and tell neighbors about a community meeting where more information will be provided.
Level 3 offenders are considered most likely to reoffend. Level 2 offenders are considered only moderately likely to commit another sex crime.
The sheriff’s office has sent out four notices via mail since April 1 to a total of 13,200 people. Attendance at those four community meetings was up 20 percent to 25 percent compared with meetings after notices were sent home from school, a sign the change is working.
"At all the sex offender community meetings I’ve been at for the last 10 years, people have complained about not getting the meeting notices," Beard said. "At the last meeting, I didn’t get any complaints at all about notification."
In addition, he said, the more people who know about the offender, "the more eyes and ears we have in the community."
Sheriff’s Detective David Coleman said 2,100 notices were sent out for a community meeting about a Level 2 offender in Mill Creek on Wednesday. About 300 people came.
Mailing out the information costs more than sending home notes from school, at 11.6 cents per notice sent, Jorgensen said.
Because the program was just started, she said she is not sure how much it will cost annually, but said, "It’s worth the extra expense because we are providing the information to more people and we’re getting the information out to a larger spectrum of people.
"An informed community is a safer community," she added.
Information about Level 3 offenders also is available on the sheriff’s office Web site at www.co.snohomish.wa.us/sheriff/rso.
Information about upcoming community meetings and sex offenders living in your community also is available by calling the sheriff’s office at 425-388-3324.
Snohomish County has 1,300 sex offenders, including 58 Level 3 offenders, 90 Level 2 offenders and 1,152 Level 1 offenders, who are considered least likely to reoffend.
You can call Herald Writer Katherine Schiffner at 425-339-3436 or send e-mail to schiffner@heraldnet.com.
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