Committee
Justice 2 Sub-Committee, 13 Nov 2006
13 Nov 2006 · S2 · Justice 2 Sub-Committee
Item of business
Child Sex Offenders Inquiry
Detective Breedlove:
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In Hernando County, we have nowhere near the same number of people as Broward County or Fort Lauderdale has. However, we have 232 sexual offenders and 10 predators. Every time a predator moves into our county or moves from one location to another in our county, we do a community notification, which takes several forms. The most noticeable form consists of an initial address verification, which ensures that the person lives at the residence that we will be notifying people of. Following that, we go door-to-door and notify every house within approximately 1,000yd—I am sorry, but I do not know the metric equivalent of that—of the predator's property line.We then alert all schools and day-care centres within a mile of the predator's residence and inform them of the predator's address and what he looks like. We hand out a flyer, which FDLE makes available on the website. After that we do a mail-out within that mile radius, which shows the same information as is on the FDLE flyer but on a smaller scale, on something about the size of a postcard. The mail-out gives people contact details about where they can get more information from us or from FDLE.We also do an e-lert, which is an e-mail notification system for which people can sign up with the sheriff's office. Every time an offender or predator moves into Hernando County, we can shoot off an e-mail that gives people information about the new address and contains a hyperlink to the FDLE website, where they can find further information if they wish.
In the same item of business
The Convener (Jackie Baillie):
Lab
Good evening, everybody. Welcome to the fifth meeting of the Justice 2 Sub-Committee. We have received apologies from Alex Fergusson. We are undertaking a sh...
Mary Coffee (Florida Department of Law Enforcement):
I am from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in Tallahassee. I am the planning and policy administrator for Florida's registration programme, which co...
Jeremy Gordon (Florida Department of Law Enforcement):
I am from the sex offender and predator unit of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Dr Teion Harrison (Florida Department of Children and Families):
I am the director of the sexually violent predator programme for the state of Florida, which is operated by the Department of Children and Families.
Annamarie Whatley (Florida Department of Law Enforcement):
I am with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's sex offender and predator unit.
Tanya Weldon (Florida Department of Law Enforcement):
I am from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's sex offender and predator unit.
Alan Moses (Florida Department of Law Enforcement):
I am from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's sex offender and predator unit.
The Convener:
Lab
Welcome to you all. Can we go to Hernando County?
Detective Tom Breedlove (Hernando County Sheriff's Office):
Yes, ma'am. I am a detective with the Hernando County sheriff's office.
The Convener:
Lab
And from Fort Lauderdale?
Sergeant Edward Sileo (Broward County Sheriff's Office):
Good evening, ma'am. I am from the Broward County sheriff's office.
The Convener:
Lab
If we are going to get on well, you must all call me Jackie. You make me feel incredibly old when you call me ma'am.You have all been provided with the quest...
Mary Coffee:
In Florida, registration started in 1993 with a small group of a few hundred sexual predators, as they were all then called. Since then, there have been seve...
Detective Breedlove:
In Hernando County, we have nowhere near the same number of people as Broward County or Fort Lauderdale has. However, we have 232 sexual offenders and 10 pre...
The Convener:
Lab
That is interesting. How effective is the system in preventing reoffending?
Detective Breedlove:
I looked at the material on the Justice 2 Sub-Committee's website and I saw that like us, you do not have much information about the extent to which a person...
The Convener:
Lab
Have you ever received negative reactions from people whom you informed about a sex offender, whether they were the offender's immediate neighbours or lived ...
Detective Breedlove:
We have had negative reactions only from family members of the predator. Sometimes people say, "Oh my gosh, that person is moving back into the neighbourhood...
The Convener:
Lab
It is often suggested to the committee that such a system can lead to displacement of offenders. If I was an offender in Florida and was subject to such scru...
Detective Breedlove:
Is that question addressed to me?
The Convener:
Lab
It is a shame that I am asking you all the questions. Do not worry, I will get to Ed Sileo in a second.
Detective Breedlove:
Yes, ma'am.We have not noticed any displacement. It seems that more people want to move to Florida than want to move out. We do not consider 242 offenders an...
The Convener:
Lab
I want to move on, as I am conscious that I have monopolised Tom Breedlove's time.
Detective Breedlove:
Not at all.
The Convener:
Lab
To get a different perspective, let us move on to Ed Sileo in Fort Lauderdale.I am told by Tom Breedlove that Broward County covers a much larger and more de...
Sergeant Sileo:
Certainly. Tom—it is good to talk to you again. It has been a little while.We have approximately 1.6 million people in Broward County. Throughout the county,...
The Convener:
Lab
Thank you very much, Ed.
John Home Robertson (East Lothian) (Lab):
Lab
Tom told us a few minutes ago that there has been very little negative reaction in neighbourhoods when information has been given to the public. Is there a r...
Detective Breedlove:
We have not had any vigilante-type activity. As Ed Sileo does, we also try to encourage our predators to attend our community meetings when we make the notif...
The Convener:
Lab
My next question is to Ed Sileo first. The resource implications of what you do are obviously substantial—in your area, you check every 30 days whether sex o...