The presence of registered sex offenders in Goleta neighborhoods is cause for public awareness, but parents should not be unduly concerned.

That was the word this week from Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Dept. Sgt. Erik Raney, the agency’s public information officer. He addressed the issue at the request of the Voice, following thw newspaper’s receipt of a letter from an alarmed local woman, who asked to remain anonymous.

“People should be cautious in general,” Raney said, “not specifically for offenders, but be diligent about where your children go, who they play with.”

Raney, who is married and a father, said he became more aware of the issue of sex offenders in the community after his first child was born. But, he emphasized, not all sex offenders continue to be a danger to children. “You have to look at them on a case-by-case basis,” he said.

Some cursory research on the Internet site for Megan’s Law brought to light that there are close to 400 registered sex offenders living in Santa Barbara County. Some 46 of those are in the general area of Goleta.

Most of the offenders on the Website are men, but there are a few women. One stood out because of her attractive, wholesome appearance: mid-thirties, neat hairdo, pleasant features. Her crime was committing “a lewd and lascivious act on a child 14 or younger.”

Sgt. Raney explained that the offense might go back many years. “She could have been an 18-year-old, involved with a 14-year-old boy,” he said. Such an offense is not that unusual. But the perpetrator, if convicted, is in the legal system permanently. “Once you register, you register for life,” Sgt. Raney said.

The law requires that sex offenders register once a year, on their birthday, he said. If they move, they have to report within five days to the law enforcement agency that is in force in their new area. Registrants without a fixed address must register every 30 days. This applies to offenders who are homeless, sleeping in their car, or staying in a homeless shelter.

California’s sex offender registry is at least 20 years old, according to the sergeant. It has in recent times been augmented by “Megan’s Law.” This is a database available to the public. It’s named for of a New Jersey child who was kidnapped and murdered by a sex offender, who had just moved to her neighborhood.

With Megan’s Law, “we can inform the public if we have the information,” Raney said. “The most serious sex offenders, those people, we can notify the public if they move into the area.”

A case in point was a recent offender found living in family housing at UCSB, Raney said. “UCSB police found one had moved into married student housing. The university felt that they had a duty to inform the residents and they did.” A major concern was that young families in university housing would be prey to an average-looking neighbor who might offer to baby-sit and then turn out to be a predator.

The database for sex offenders is www.meganslaw.ca.gov. Persons accessing it will find a series of prompts leading them to their specific community’s listings - with offenders’ photographs - as well as those in neighboring communities.

A brief scan of county communities showed that almost 400 convicted, registered sex offenders are scattered throughout the county. That includes 88 in the Goleta-Santa Barbara zip codes, and 222 in Santa Maria.

One feature of the registry is the use of large red checkmarks next to the names of offenders who are “in violation” - meaning they have moved and have not reported their new addresses.

“’In violation’ means they haven’t updated their registration,” Raney said. “If one doesn’t show up, we try to find out the reason for the non-compliance. We seek prosecution for violators. If it’s a big red check, we’ll track it down.”

But, Raney pointed out, the U.S. Constitution prohibits “prior restraint” - arresting a sex offender on the chance that he or she “might” commit another such crime. “If they’ve paid their debt, you can’t just bring them in,” he said.

“We can inform the public if we have the information. The most serious sex offenders, those people, we can notify the public if they move into the area.”

In some communities where this has happened, public outcry was so great that the offender had to move again, to another location.

Parent education is another powerful tool in protecting children, Raney said. Parent classes, PEP groups and similar activities allow young parents to hear from law enforcement officers and doctors about how to protect their children.

“If the Sheriff’s Department is asked, we would accommodate them,” Raney said.

COURTESY PHOTO