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| Lap-Tops New Weapon to Track Sex Offenders |
| By The Cape Cod Times |
| Published: 09/26/2005 |
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Massachusetts county law enforcement officials handed out 20 tablet-style laptops yesterday to help local police departments better track area sex offenders. The laptops - which were provided as part of a sex offender management pilot program - are the latest methods in an effort to better watch the Bay State's most dangerous sex criminals. The state Sex Offender Registry Board came under fire after a convicted sex offender, Paul Nolin, murdered Jonathan Wessner of Falmouth two years ago this week. Investigation by the Times revealed that the state had failed to track Nolin in the community - the same way it had lost track of thousands of other offenders. In 2004, Barnstable County was awarded $275,000, with the help of state Sen. Therese Murray, for a pilot program led by Barnstable County Sheriff James Cummings and Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe to track sex offenders. The computer program accounts for $152,000 of that fund. The computers, which cost $3,000 each, were designed to be used like a clipboard, said Sheriff's Department Network Manager Joshua Straughn. An officer visiting offenders' homes or work addresses can show the offender the information on the screen, and update it with a special tool that can write on the screen. In the next six to eight months, the system will be upgraded so that individual towns can share the updated information with each other automatically. The Corrections machines are already linked so that when they are placed at a ''docking station'' at the end of the night, they automatically share updated information with the other machines, Straughn said. Other enhancements to the system will make sharing of information instantaneous, Straughn said. O'Keefe said 52 people have been evaluated to determine whether they are sexually dangerous, a label that could commit a person to a treatment facility for life. Of those, 18 have moved to the next phase of the process, evaluation by a psychologist, O'Keefe said. Some 33 people in Barnstable have been charged with violating Sex Offender Registry laws by not properly giving their information to the state, as required. Of those, most have been ordered by a judge to register. At least two people have received short jail sentences, O'Keefe said. The classification process, when handled through the regular process, can sometimes take years, during which time many sex offenders simply disappear. Currently, Barnstable has one offender in that process who will be released in December. Cummings said by then that person should be classified. |
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