By CECILIA CLARK
Staff Writer
916-319-2036, Assemblymember George Runner, spokesman Will Smith
OK, all done by gov. legislature order “rapid alert” to general public.
Spokesperson for Hollingsworth office
Tyler Wade, will email me fax sheet, 916-319-2066, Assemblymember Dennis Hollingsworth
Cathy Evans, chief of staff
Local task force allows different jurisdictions the ability to collaborate on regions.
S.A.F.E. task force, Santa Clara Sheriff’s Dept.
Gene Phillips, SJ Police Dept.
Dictates who may be involved and gives a number of requirements, only if appropriate funds will be allocated. Implication is there would be funding forthcoming.
Nothing in this chapter will misconstrue, granting additional rights or taking people’s rights away. Public safety withouth taking away people’s rights.
Senate Public Safety Committee is not going to set the bills, not going to give them a hearing.
Gut and amend old language and put new language.
Committee hears that in new form.
They don’t want to give the bills a hearing. Our bills won’t get heard, they don’t want to do anymore gut and amends on bills or at least not Republican sponsored bills. Press conference on Thursday. It’s an important issue, to families.Worthy bills, pretty upset. Bi-partisan bill, have had bi-partisan support.
State agencies, money from somewhere.electronic transmission of fingerprints, easier to track offenders
SCC has already done that, program as a model bill based on aprevious bill SB 499, introduced in 1999 Megan’s Law, as a practical matter, offenders don’t a lways register with accurate information and update.
burdensome and expensive for agencies. Santa Clara County is the model efforts proactive surveilliance, targeting habitual sex offenderssurveilled, if there is a problem they are arrested. Strictly enforces registration requirements, right now they are loosely enforced in many cases
John Lovell, CA Police Association, 916-447-3820, original sponsor of that bill
Spokesperson for Assemblymember George Runner, Will Smith
AB 415, been in the works for 2-3 months — statewide — Other four bills are a direct re sponse to Samantha. HR 8 resolution before the gov. last fall. statement of the legislature on an issue.
Called for the gov. to demonstrate some leadership on this.
Sponsor of bill was the Polly Klaas Foundation. Instruct him to do this from the legislature.
Jenny Thompson, 707-477-5887, Polly Klaas Foundation
Any region can establish their own Amber Alert system.
A true alert is one that goes out through the FCC.
Faxes — in Orange County
Emergency Alert System — CA can do this, regions can do this currently but no state wide protocol.
Has to be the ability to go state wide and issue regionally. Amber-alert system, this is something that has been a national push. Emergency alert, “this only a test of the emergency alert system.” Used mostly for storm warning, Universally known. Broadcasters will use this sytem. Use a special set of tones that have been a proved by the FCC last May. Special set of tones for child abductions by strangers. This is an Amber alert, have special tones, read script that comes over from the state agency that is in charge. They will notify the public with information that they have — possibly car and abductor descriptions, In Samatha’s case they had body and car description. As many of 17 safe recoveries from Amber alert in the country. A phone number in script or read over the radio. Local law enforcement agency direct line is possible. In the majority of kidnapping, you usually have bad news. In the first three hours, according to the Dept. of Justice. It’s critical that there is no sitting on the information. Definitely fit the profile. Critical to get the informaiton out as soon as possible.
Orange County — fax blast. Didn’t ask anyone to break into their broadcasting.
Local alert, stations waited until local news.
Found in other states —
Three high profile kidnapping in CA this year.
Criteria is established by local law enforcement. Stranger abduction, eminent danger, that it is a minor 17 years or younger. Not just any kidnapping.
www.missingkids.com — maps that are statewide vs. regional
Lisa P’s article, May 2001
Opponents of the courthouse to be built in Morgan Hill have expressed fears that it will bring pedophiles into their neighborhood, but a review of the Megan’s Law CD-ROM shows that 76 registered sex offenders already live in the area.
According to Morgan Hill Police Chief Steve Schwab, that number reflects the number of registered sex offenders who have an address with a 95037 ZIP code.
“We audit those numbers quarterly to determine the number living in the city limits,” Schwab said.
He said that 53 registered sex offenders live within the Morgan Hill city limits. Over the last six years, that number has fluctuated between 44 and 54 registrants.
Megan’s Law is a 1995 federal law that enacted a hotline to field calls from the public. Callers can check if suspicious person is a registered sex offender. California’s version of Megan’s Law was enacted in 1996, and it authorizes the placement of a CD-ROM at law enforcement agencies for access by the general public.
Fewer than a dozen people per year view the CD-ROM at the Morgan Hill police station, Schwab said.
Megan’s Law is named for Megan Kanka, a 7-year-old New Jersey girl who was raped and killed by a known sex offender who moved into a home across the street from her house.
Of the 53 registered sex offenders within the Morgan Hill city limits, 47 are classified as serious sex offenders, one is a high-risk sex offender, and five are categorized as other, Schwab said. All but one of the registered sex offenders are males.
Within the area bounded by U.S. 101, Dunne Avenue, Monterey Road and Central Avenue, there are three serious registered sex offenders, Schwab said. That area includes the preferred courthouse site at the northwest corner of Diana Avenue and Butterfield Boulevard.
“A serious sex offender is someone who has been convicted of a felony sex offense, such as rape or misdemeanor child molestation,” Schwab said.
A high-risk sex offender is someone convicted of a sex offense who has been identified by the state Department of Justice as having a high risk of reoffending or who may pose a greater danger to the general public, according to Schwab.
The ‘other’ category includes people convicted of some misdemeanors and felonies, including repeated indecent exposure, spousal rape, or repeated pornography violations, he said.
Schwab said there is some judicial discretion in deciding which offenders must register. For example, an 18-year-old convicted of statutory rape for having sex with a 16-year-old girlfriend might not be required to register as a sex offender.
In Santa Clara County, there are about 4,000 registered sex offenders, according to Schwab.
“That number has not gone up appreciably in six years,” Schwab said.
Sex offenders are required to register every year, and to re-register whenever they move, Schwab said. If a registrant changes jurisdictions, he or she is supposed to notify both the new and old police departments for each residence of the change within 10 days of moving. Failure to notify the police is a crime and could land the registrant in jail, regardless of whether he or she is on probation or parole.
The first time a sex offender registers, he or she is photographed, fingerprinted and a DNA sample is taken, Schwab said. Whenever a sex offender registers in Morgan Hill, the police physically verify that the registrant resides at the given address.
“We go out and knock on the door,” Schwab said.
Transients are required to register every 30 days.
If a sex offender doesn’t reregister as required, the police make contact to determine if he or she still lives in the area. If the sex offender should have reregistered, he or she is subject to arrest, Schwab said.
In addition to the local agency work, a sex offender task force investigates major sex crimes and tracks registered sex offenders on parole, he said.
The task force, called Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement (S.A.F.E.) task force, tails registered sex offenders on parole to check for any violations of their parole conditions.
S.A.F.E. is comprised of members of the Sheriff’s Department, some municipal police officers, the FBI, California Highway Patrol and the federal Department of Justice, according to Schwab.
“S.A.F.E. does an annual sweep of registered sex offenders who are on parole throughout the county and we provide officers to help them in Morgan Hill,” Schwab said.
In the last sweep, in February, 93 of the 102 registered sex offenders on parole in Santa County were contacted, Schwab said. Of those, S.A.F.E. conducted 63 parole searches and arrested 12 people on suspicion of parole violation.
In Morgan Hill, there are six registered sex offenders on parole. S.A.F.E. and the Morgan Hill police contacted all six, and conducted five parole searches.
One registered sex offender was arrested for suspected parole violation, Schwab said. In that case, the parolee was found to be in possession of pornography, which was a violation of one of his conditions of parole.
To inquire about a suspected sex offender, call (900) 448-3000. The fee is $10 for up to two names. To learn more about Megan’s Law, visit www.caag.state.ca.us/megan/ on the Internet. To view the Megan’s Law CD-ROM, go to the police department lobby at 17605 Monterey Road during normal business hours, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Juliane Sylva, DA’s Office of Child Abductions (deals mainly with family abductions)
County doesn’t have a DA assigned strictly for stranger abductions because most cases end sadly.
Cases go to sexual assault or homicide.
Bud Gaylord, bg******@nc***.org (tracks abductions nationwide and sends out alerts to agencies)
www.missingkids.org
Identification kit for parents to keep (Available at community events sponsored by DAs office)
Photograph of child for identification
Fingerprint
Swab cheek for DNA cells
Staple into little kit for parent to keep
Vanished Children’s Alliance. www.vca.org (family and stranger abductions)
1-800-826-4743, 296-1113
Project Smart, Victoria, lm 8/5
SAFE Unit Task Force,
Gene Phillips, Sergeant
Began in 1994 pilot program by SJPD, Dave Keneler Ltn.
1995 formed, 11 municipal, county, state, federal
FBI, US Customs, US Marshal Service, (Fed) CA Dept. Justice, CHP, Dept. of Corrections (state) local SJPD, Sheriff’s, DA, SC Police and Milpitas
2002, SJP, Sheriffs, DA, CA Dept. Justice, FBI, agent, work closely with parole
Auspices of the Sheriff’s Dept. provides location, crime analyst, investigator
SAFE — reduce violent sexual assault crimes in SCC through proactive enforcement focused on sexual predators
Based on how many are reported, sexual assault crimes are down.
Crime analysis unit in the city of SJ will have statistics
Over 4,000 registered sex offenders in SCC at some point we ‘ve contacted over half of those
Megan’s Law statewide 9,300 in the state, 3rd largest population behind LA and San Diego Counties
It’s been a law that you have to register since 1947 in CA
Have to be convicted of penal code 290 then you have to register for life
Pre-registered and then once out of custody they have to go to police or sheriff’s where they going to reside
Not an option for a judge to wave registration
one of our functions is to track people and arrest them for the violation
Can be a felony or a misdemeanor only once (less than a year of county jail)
re arrest is a felony — only get one chance of a misdameanor arrest
population 50,000 or greater their own copy or access — not required to have it
Local police or sheriff’s dept. no fee
SAFE taken into 920 sex offenders for a variety of charges
Quite a few of those are third strike offenses or 25-life
second strike is 15 – life
Only as a available resource, we’er not an investigative body. done search warrants, recovered child pornographers
Not our real mandate — investigation unless it’s a simple investigation we go ahead, otherwise we notify the agency that has jurisdiction.
Make us available resource
surveillance, search
I wholeheartely support this is sort of my dream job. Assisting the justice dept. to set up a SAFE task force in San Mateo. Alameda already has one
Funding from the state and the federal gov. A couple of years ago we participated in a state gov.
The benefit of the Task Force is the fluidity. We can go anywhere in the county. Most depts. in the county don’t have the resources (police depts. are small) available to devote to long-time surveillance, we become an extension to and we can subsidize. We can bring justice, FBI, experience and resources.
SAFE Unit Task Force,
Gene Phillips, Sergeant
The people who work here are very dedicated, flex time, sometimes it requires we work 24 hours
Arrested 150 last year, record. On a pace to beat this year. All from the dedication and hard work from the people who work here.
Megan’s, Samatha’s, Elizabeth pictures on my desk as a reminder for why we do what we do.
Database of nearly 1,900 sex offenders that we have contacted in one form another
- compliance visits for registration
-
identified of a potential threat, surveillance
-
covert surveillance
-
probation or arrested or a party that we’ve rearrested
www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm
Captain Bob Davies, CHP
Our agency has been designated statewide as TRAC system.
Coordinating agency, doesn’t mean we’re the ones predominately police, sheriff, law enforcement agency are the investigators.
We’re coordinators, statewide link with Cal Trans, state agencies we are able to assist the local agencies broadcast across the state.
Police, sheriff, if they want CHP help — we can:
- assist information into TRAC system
-
assist information into EAS sytem
-
alert the emergency notification and tactical alert center (state-run center) (assistance element) that center will assist in getting information to them
Use them as a resource.
We can get that information out very, very quickly.
Radio, tv, cal trans changeable message boards, newspaper
That information was up
The investigating agency makes the decision they want to put out and how much information they want to put out. Example: MH Police
Investigating agency makes the decision on how small or how large the notificatin is. Our role is just to assist them in getting that information out.
911 celluar system goes into CHP
We are undoubtedly going to make a decision before hearing from the agency.
Notifying.
work throught the traffic management center, joint ventures between CHP and Cal Trans. Cal Trans owns and operates the signs. CHP typically makes the decision what goes up there.
Finally coming together to have a network so that all the agencies can share information.
In the past the information has been written, TRAC system can scan photos, victim, vehicle, downloaded to all agencies and to the media to be put out to the public.
Visually oriented.
Estimate time: On TRAC system, scan in photographs — immediately taken to the agency that has TRAC system.
Within a month eveyr CHP will have a TRAC sytem. Delay — 30 minutes before its gets on the system.
Phone calls – 2 minutes
Safeway parking lot, notify Sacramento by phone
they in turn have a network to notify emergency agencies — just a couple of minutes.
Television and radio, this is not mandated by the law
It’s reasonable to assume it could be done in 30 but it is subject to private sector.
TRAC system is a computer network and equipment. so that a person can bring a photograph and scan it into computer and send it to all agencies wtih a TRAC system.
Part of why CHP is involved in this is because we’re statewide and already have the resources for this.
Who else will have the TRAC system? Not a required system.
We are budgeted and receiving the equipment we already need. Within our resources we plan to absorb the costs.
Training: Yes, there has been.Developing over the past 2 years. Now that the CHP
We have already started the process at the local level.
Sharing information, how it works, numbers of contacts.
Notified allied agencies.
Once we get the computer, you’ll have a coordinator that will be trained in how to use equipment and process.
This is one step forwarding in uniting law enforcement agencies with the public in getting abducted kids back. this is a cooperative effort in making this happen.
If it’s your son or your daughter or your niece or nephew, how widespread would you want to go. If that was my child or your child you want the world to know and looking.
the minor inconvenience for a traffic delay if we’re successful in recovering one child.
It’s been pandemonium around here. As a result of that we’ve been doing many many media interviews. We have had many, many requests for prevention education trainings from schools, parent groups, professioanls. Individuals calling for prevention information.
we’re working to promote the curriculum
Primarily PS is kids K-6, secondary audinece is everyone else.
This was originally funded by the Gov. office of Criminal Justice Planning.
work with 38 northern counties.
National organization.
Increase in missing children cases. Montel show will air Friday. Project Smart hasn’t been funded because of the government budget situation. It’s been a challenge getting $ for more services and less money.
Grant from state gov. for three years, developing curriculum. All this money has gone into designing this program and now we have no funding. We have used it in the 38 northern coutnies. We’re funding it through our own operating budget. Certainly have been addressing needs. We have to be a little more frugal with northern counties. High profile cases occur —
Public is scared so they want some answers, implants, there is no replacement for common sense. There are no quick answers. A lot of practice, hard work. Things that are very difficult for some parents to talk about. We can’t expect a four-year old says that common sense, older other skills. Age appropriate and age specific
We have had so many requests. Contact schools that they want us, we’d arrange to be there.
Project Smart, train county coordinators through the Sheriff’s office. Who did we train originally that could provide info. VCA services 7 bay area counties. We usually like at least 15-20 people. We’d have to determine, larger number. No fee for training, graciously accept donations. Staff do presentations in SCC.
Participate in safety events, fingerprinting of children and photographs. safety packet hand-outs: id sheet, encourage parents to fill that out, custody packets. family abduction. School call-back program: school agrees that they want to establish program. Parents are obligated to call school. School follows up with parent and then emergency card and then law enforcement. Teacher and in-staff training re: prevention and re-entry.
Also train professionals, victim advocates, throughout country. Also reduces truancy. No idea what will result with that. What the standards are, bugs in the beginning. Excellent program. Need to coordinate with statewide programs and regional programs. The public needs to realize that these broadcast cases Think about we need more training. What do we have to do then?? Law enforcement agencies have protocol — keep the issue in the forefront of hte public. We have had some horrible tragedies but some things that have resulted that will be positive.
Troy Hoefling
Registrants in MH 84 in 95037
64 in city limits
High-risk – 1 in Megan’s Law
transient,but registers here
Serious
Other
Russ Rocchi, owner of West Coast Tae Kwon Do and fifth degree black belt
A safety course in September, Know and Go, part of a course titled Training for Life. Training to save your life and save your family’s. Child Safety Day
Upcoming course will be a safety day. A whole child safety fair, police, child id tags, fire fighters, courses for children, course for adults.
Stun and Run, teaches you to quickly diffuse situation and get away.
Trying to educate the public on how to protect themselves.
Self defense focues on adults- Links
Martial arts focuses on teaching kids abc’s of safety.
Visiting day care centers about the abc’s of safety. Our way of giving back to the community.
Aware — being aware of who and what are around you
Beware — be alert and be cautious
Confidence — typically the people with the most confidence are left alone
United Academy of Martial Arts
Nancy Clampitt, owner
Child Safe, do not offer on an ongoing basis, but will go out to schools and do a program for children and parents
Make them aware of potentially dangerous situations and how to deal with it.
Primarily our martial arts program has an emphasis on the child’s right to say no
Drills incorporate Avoid, Evade and Escape.
King’s Martial Arts
Jeff King, owner, teaching for 31 years
Free class for kids, “Child Safety,” with a free CD on child safety. Way of community service. 20-minute class. Given out 100 CDs — pop in the CD in computer.
Great success in that method. Child safety programs on Channel 19 from King’s Make kids aware of what’s going on. Safety is also about making yourself feel strong and confident. Training of confidence and listening, proper touching. Explaining it in how kids they understood. Give parent tips — need to help out kids also.
