DuPage county offer e-mail alert about sex offenders
February 22, 2006
The DuPage County Sheriff`s office has put in a system that sends e-mail alerts to residents who sign up for it, advising them when a convicted sex offender moves to within a mile of their homes.
The “OffenderWatch” community notification system, available through the sheriff`s Web site, also offers a search engine.
A DuPage resident can type in an offender`s name to learn where he or she is living, or an address to view a list of all sex offenders living within a one-mile radius, Sheriff John E. Zaruba said.
“If you`re armed with knowledge, you do with it what you need to keep your children safe, your family safe,” Zaruba said. A Louisiana software company takes public information on registered sex offenders and puts it in a searchable Internet database.
The sheriff`s department decided to obtain the system, at a cost of about $7,000 a year, to reduce the time lag between when offenders register to live in a certain jurisdiction and when that information becomes publicly available, he said.
The county previously had operated a Web site giving the whereabouts of sex offenders in DuPage—currently, 309 individuals. It used information from the state to keep it up to date, resulting in a lag of about two to three weeks, Zaruba said.
Since the events of September 11th, 2001 your Sheriff has taken extraordinary steps to ensure that DuPage County remains one of the safest communities in the nation, and by doing so is now recognized as a leader in homeland security preparedness.
The DuPage County Sheriff’s Office, under the leadership of Sheriff John E Zaruba has taken a proactive approach to enhance the Office’ response to potential threats related to local homeland security in three areas:
Since the events of September 11th, 2001 your Sheriff has taken extraordinary steps to ensure that DuPage County remains one of the safest communities in the nation, and by doing so is now recognized as a leader in homeland security preparedness.
The DuPage County Sheriff’s Office, under the leadership of Sheriff John E Zaruba has taken a proactive approach to enhance the Office’ response to potential threats related to local homeland security in three areas:
When a community is prepared for an emergency, with resources and trained personnel ready to respond, lives will be saved and property protected. Sheriff Zaruba has been granted a state of the art Mobile Unified Command Post to enhance response coordination and communication in any emergency. The Command Post is an important tool for command and control, serving the needs of the citizens of DuPage County when called upon.
This preparation and foresight enhances the daily operations of your Sheriff’s Office putting an emphasis on proactive vigilance and an increased awareness that homeland security is not only about protection from terrorist attacks, disaster’s or other emergencies, but is also about protecting the lives and property of our citizens every day.
Source: http://www.dupageco.org/sheriff/Homeland%20Security/WaronTerrorism.htm