HomeMy WebLinkAbout20081323.tiff RESOLUTION
RE: APPROVE GRANT APPLICATION FOR SEX OFFENDER REGISTRATION,
COMPLIANCE, AND APPREHENSION FUNDS AND AUTHORIZE CHAIR TO SIGN -
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, SMART OFFICE 2008 SUPPORT FOR ADAM
WALSH ACT IMPLEMENTATION GRANT PROGRAM
WHEREAS, the Board of County Commissioners of Weld County, Colorado, pursuant to
Colorado statute and the Weld County Home Rule Charter, is vested with the authority of
administering the affairs of Weld County, Colorado, and
WHEREAS, the Board has been presented with a Grant Application for Sex Offender
Registration, Compliance, and Apprehension Funds from the County of Weld, State of Colorado,
by and through the Board of County Commissioners of Weld County, on behalf of the Weld County
Sheriff's Office,to the United States Department of Justice, SMART Office 2008 Support for Adam
Walsh Implementation Grant Program, with terms and conditions being as stated in said grant
application, and
WHEREAS, after review, the Board deems it advisable to approve said grant application,
a copy of which is attached hereto and incorporated herein by reference.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Board of County Commissioners of Weld
County, Colorado, that the Grant Application for Sex Offender Registration, Compliance, and
Apprehension Funds from the County of Weld, State of Colorado, by and through the Board of
County Commissioners of Weld County, on behalf of the Weld County Sheriff's Office, to the
United States Department of Justice,SMART Office 2008 Support for Walsh Implementation
Grant Program be, and hereby is, approved.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED by the Board that the Chair be, and hereby is, authorized to
sign said grant application.
The above and foregoing Resolution was, on motion duly made and seconded, adopted by
the following vote on the 5th day of May, A.D., 2008.
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
hJ ELD COUNTY, COLORADO
{ni
ATTEST: Jt `ie4.4 r� -
ri
Iliam H. Jerke, Chair
Weld County Clerk to the B fiRr
� � RXCUSED
Li G obAL I sd ro Tem
BY. l/ 7
D ty Cle to the Board
William F. Garcia
APPROVED AS TO FORM: EXCUSED
David E. Long
4sitAat,(4(ce,
pryirCou t Attar y
6' IC Dougla ademac er
Date of signature:
2008-1323
SO0029
00 : SO e-i4'-o8"
MAY-01-2008 THU 03: 12 PM FAX NO. P. 02
Sheriff johin B. Coo/r
May 1, 2008
TO: Weld County Commissioners
FROM: Weld County Sheriffs Office
Commander Ken Poncelow
Headquarters Commander Ed Haffner
1950"o"street Detective Terie Rinne
Greeley,CO 80631
Ph.(970)356015 We are requesting $
Fax(970)304.6467 eq g to be included in the a enda for the Commissioner meetingon
Monday May 5,2008. We are in the process of applying for a grant for federal funds
for sex offender registration, compliance, and apprehension. The grant application is
in process and is due on Wednesday May 7,2008.
Fort Lupton Substation
330 Park Avenue The project abstract, project narrative, budget worksheet and narrative, and project
Ft.Lupton,CO 80621 p Jg
Ph. (303)857-2465 timeline is included with this memo.
Fax(303)857.3027
Thank you,
Southwest Complex Tie Rinne
4209 WCR24''
Longmont,CO 80504
Ph.(720)652-4215
Fax(720)6524217
North Jail Complex
2110"O"Street
Greeley,CO 80631
Ph.(970)356-4015
Ext.3922
Fax(970)304-6461
...to provide an
environment
designed to
maintain and
enhance the
general health,
welfare, and safety
of the people of
Weld County. -
Applicant: Weld County Sheriffs Office, Weld County, Colorado
Title: Sex Offender Registration, Compliance, and Apprehension
Amount Requested: $51,350.00
Program Abstract
The Weld County Sheriff's Office(WCSO), Weld County, Colorado requests
funding under the US Department of Justice's SMART Office 2008 Support for Adam
Walsh Implementation Grant Program-Funding Opportunity Number SMART-2008-
1852. This will allow the WCSO to enhance the registration process and compliance
checks for registered sex offenders. Additionally, this process will identify non-
compliant registrants and lead to an aggressive effort to apprehend non-compliant
registrants. The funding would be utilized for overtime for registration efforts,
compliance checks, community notification, and apprehension of non-compliant
offenders. The overarching goal of this project is to improve the compliance of offenders
to register, enhance the apprehension of non-compliant offenders and provide training to
law enforcement officers about sexual offender pathology and legal issues surrounding
sex offender registration.
The WCSO proposes four goals to ensure registration and compliance of
registered sex offenders within the Weld County. 1) Provide overtime for law
enforcement officers and support staff to improve timely registration validation,
compliance checks, and notification to the community. 2) Provide training for law
enforcement officers and support staff in the area of Sex Offenders and Sex Offender
Registration laws. 3) Enhancement of its efforts to locate and apprehend sex offenders
who are non-compliant. 4) Develop a coordinated effort with the courts to seek enhanced
sentencing for non-compliance.
Page 1 of 10
Program Narrative
Introduction:
The Weld County Sheriff's Office (WCSO) developed a sex offender
management program in 2001. At that time WCSO had about 60 registered sex offenders
in their jurisdiction. At present time WCSO is registering about 120 sex offenders. This
process includes data entry into a local in-house system, entry into CCIC and NCIC,
fingerprinting and photographing, researching of conviction and requirement to register,
validating address by responding to address and confirming for accuracy and validity,
meeting with registrant upon initial registration and ensuring registrant understands
registration requirements,posting eligible offenders the WCSO website mapping
program, and completing compliance checks on a quarterly basis.
The WCSO is posting eligible registered sex offenders on the WCSO website for
a number of municipalities within the county. This collaboration involves the resources
of the WCSO to complete this project. There are several more municipalities that could
utilize this coordinated effort. WCSO would like to gain a majority of the municipalities
within the county to provide website access for the citizens of those communities to learn
the location of sex offenders. This collaboration increases the number of sex offenders
that WCSO registers and maps to approximately 200.
The WCSO is utilizing current resources, mainly personnel, to complete this
process. The number of registrants has increased two-fold in seven years and is expected
to continue. The Adam Walsh Act calls for an increase in registered sex offender by
requiring registration, in addition to the offender's jurisdiction of residence, in their
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jurisdiction of employment and schooling. The AWA requires three different
classifications of sex offenders and retroactive registration for certain previously
convicted sex offenders. The AWA increases the time that registered sex offenders may
petition the court to remove the requirement to register. The Colorado State Registry at
the Colorado Bureau of Investigations also identifies non-compliant offenders and passes
that information to the local jurisdiction to investigate and apprehend those individuals.
Statement of the Problem
The WCSO is utilizing current resources to register and manage sex offenders
within the community. The resources are mainly comprised of personnel. There has not
been an increase in personnel to accommodate sex offender registration. These personnel
include office technicians and support staff, patrol officers, and detectives. Sex Offender
registration duties are in addition to regular duties. This causes regular duties or sex
offender duties to be unreasonably delayed a lot of the time.
In 2007 WCSO gained 82 new registered sex offenders. 23 of those sex offenders
are still registered with WCSO. The rest of the sex offenders have gone into the prison
system or other jurisdictions. 6 of the new registered sex offenders were charged with
failing to register or are currently being investigated for failing to register. There is an
abundance of paperwork and time involved with a new registrant. The number of
registered sex offender is expected to continue to increase as population increases. There
are many components of AWA that will increase the number of registered sex offenders,
the frequency of registration, the duration of registration, and the amount of data to
collect and be available to the community.
Page 3of10
The WCSO is requesting monies to pay overtime for office technicians and
support staff, patrol officers, and detectives to dedicate time specifically to the
registration and compliance of registered sex offenders and locating and apprehending
non-compliant sex offenders. By dedicating time specifically to this effort we will gain
quality time directed at this effort, quicker processing of sex offender registration and
mapping, more rapid identification of non-compliant offenders, and an expedited judicial
process.
Implementation and Enhancement Strategy
Goal#1
The WCSO would identify personnel who are interested and committed to the
success of this project. The personnel would be dedicated to complete and accurate
gathering of information, the complete and accurate documentation of time spent working
on sex offender registration and compliance issues, the complete and accurate
documentation of contact with a registered sex offender, the identification of non-
compliant offenders, and timely requests to the District Attorney's Office for filing of
charges.
Currently, each registered sex offender within the county is subject to quarterly
address compliance checks a year. The initial address verification and meeting with the
sex offender is accomplished by one of two detectives who carry a full case load of
criminal cases. These detectives do not receive any reduction in case load in exchange
for managing the sex offender case load. Subsequent address compliance checks are
completed by patrol deputies. Because this is in addition to regular duties of call
Page 4 of 10
response and criminal investigation, along with the travel distance involved, it can take
several weeks to actually complete the compliance check in some cases. Weld County is
4002 square miles and some registered sex offender addresses consume an hour of travel
time in one direction to get to the residence from our main office in Greeley, Colorado.
Goal#2
The WCSO would train personnel who would be dedicated to this project to allow
for a better understanding of the sex offender population and the laws governing sex
offender registration. Mervyn Davies, President of DAVSEL VENTURES, Inc. currently
provides consultation, evaluation, and therapy for domestic violence and sex offenders.
He provides professional workshops in the areas of domestic violence and sex offenders.
He supervises several clinical programs in the areas of domestic violence and sex
offenders. He has been a consultant on CBS News with Dan Rather, 48 Hours, and the A
& E Channel in the matter of sex offenders. He has extensive education and experience
with sex offenders and sexual assault victims. He has agreed to provide training to
WCSO personnel who would be dedicated to this project. This would need to be
accomplished in two day long sessions to accommodate both squads of patrol deputies
without compromising coverage of their patrol duties. Mervyn Davies has agreed to a fee
of$500 per session.
The WCSO would coordinate training to the dedicated personnel about sex
offender laws in the State of Colorado, AWA minimal standards and substantial
compliance,judicial standards for successful prosecution, along with development of
minimal standards for documentation of contacts with sex offenders to include an
accurate account of time spent. This training would be presented and facilitated WCSO
Page 5 of 10
without additional cost. The WCSO would coordinate for training assistance with the
Colorado Department of Justice and Sex Offender Management Board without additional
cost, if necessary.
In addition to training WCSO personnel, the training would be promoted to other
interested agencies and personnel in the Northern Colorado region who are involved in
the registration of sex offenders. The WCSO is currently in multi jurisdictional law
enforcement collaborative withl2 municipalities for the registration and mapping of sex
offenders on the internet. The collaboration is governed by Memorandum of
Understandings signed by the Police Chief in each of those jurisdictions. There are two
municipalities in Weld County that maintain their own websites for registered sex
offenders and the WCSO site provides a link to those sites. There are 4 municipalities
that WCSO provides contract law enforcement to and WCSO maintains sex offender
registration and mapping for those communities. There are 5 additional municipalities
within Weld County that do not participate in the WCSO sex offender mapping. It is a
goal of this program to get them to participate in whole or by a link to their own website.
Goal#3
WCSO dedicated deputies would identify non-compliant offenders mainly
through home address verification. If the offender is found to be non-compliant a
warrant will be secured without unnecessary delay and put into the NCIC system. Efforts
will be made to locate and apprehend the offender through several means which could
include collaboration with CBI (Colorado Bureau of Investigations) and the US Marshal
Service for additional information and intelligence to accomplish this.
Page 6 of 10
WCSO dedicated deputies would be available to other deputies and personnel to
determine if a registered sex offender is compliant. WCSO deputies have come into
contact with registered sex offenders in the course of their patrol duties. Deputies would
be able to determine if an offender is compliant or not and take appropriate action
involving non-compliant offenders. The dedicated deputies could be called upon to assist
based upon their training and experience with registered sex offender and compliance
issues.
Goal #4
WCSO would meet with the Weld County District Attorney's Office to address
the prosecution and sentencing of non-compliant offenders. This meeting would develop
minimum standards for acceptance of prosecution. The minimum standards would
address the elements needed to prove the offense, along with improved documentation
regarding the interaction with the offender during the initial registration process and the
compliance checks. This meeting will address the best practice for obtaining the warrants
for non-compliance without delay. This meeting would develop dialogue between the
two entities regarding the sentencing of non-compliant offenders.
Capabilities and Competencies
A key component of this project will be Detective Terie Rinne. She is responsible
for the development and design of the WCSO current sex offender management program
which she created in 2001. She was part of the efforts and success of the current mapping
of registered sex offenders for WCSO and several municipalities within. She has a large
quantity of interaction with the current population of registered sex offenders in Weld
Page 7 of 10
County. She has been investigating sex crime for 14 years and responsible for sex
offender registration and compliance for 7 years. She has extensive training and
experience in the investigation of sex crimes to include adults and child, sexual offenders
to include adults and children, sexually violent predators, sex offender registration, and
community notification.
An office technician who is currently involved in the maintenance of the mapping
of registered sex offenders would be a part of the project. The office technician would
schedule and keep track of overtime used for the project. Two detectives would be a part
of the project, one for the north part of the county and one for the south part of the
county. The detectives would be responsible for the initial registration paperwork for
completeness and accuracy, the initial home visit with the registrant, forwarding
information to office technician for mapping, the accuracy of the mapping, re-registration
paperwork, and compliance checks. 6-8 deputies would be responsible for the
compliance checks and apprehension efforts. Currently these deputies may be doing
compliance checks,but doing so without the knowledge of this special population and the
necessity to hold them accountable for non-compliance issues for the safety of the
community. One supervisor would oversee the project to ensure that resources and time
are managed efficiently, documentation meets or exceeds standards, and performance of
the members of the team meets or exceeds standards. All persons involved in the
projects will receive training specific to sex offenders and sex offender registrations.
Responsibilities of the people could be delegated to other persons in the project at times
for maximum efficiency.
Page 8of10
Impact/Outcomes and Evaluation
The primary goal of this project is to reach a high level compliance with sex
offender registration. This will be accomplished by home visits for compliance checks,
but also to interact with the registered sex offenders as a part of the community. This
interaction could lead to ideas and referrals to the registrant in the event he/she may need
them to succeed in the community. This interaction would allow better knowledge of a
sex offender, where they live, what they drive, what they look like in the event of a
sexual assault or child abduction investigation. For those sex offenders that become non-
compliant the goal is to have 100% of the cases accepted for prosecution.
An in-house case management system is currently being used for each sex
offender by assigning each one a case number and written report. These case numbers
will still be used as each offender will need to have his/her own separate file where
information specific to that offender is kept. An additional case number will be assigned
to encompass the project as a whole where efforts and time spent are documented
completely and accurately. This will allow for quick and accurate access to the project
data as a whole to review the efforts to obtain goals.
A procedure will be developed for the Sex Offender Registration, Compliance,
and Apprehension project. This procedure will guide the project so sex offenders,
compliance issues, and apprehension is handled consistently between persons involved in
the project. It will also guide other WCSO personnel that could interact with registered
sex offenders in the course of their normal duties would gain an understanding of the
Page 9 of 10
project goals. This procedure knowledge would be a trigger to look into the compliance
of a sex offender.
Sustainment of the project will began with presentation of the project to the Weld
County Commissioners advising them of the application for grant monies, the amount of
grant monies requested, the in-kind contribution of the WCSO, and the efforts and
success of this project would create a request for monies at budget time. The Weld
County Commissioners approved the grant application on 05-05-2008. The impact and
outcomes of the project may allow for some redistribution of personnel assignments and
job duties. Currently Weld County is charging each registered sex offender$20 for
initial registration and $20 for annual registration. Registrants are not charged for
quarterly registration. The impact and outcome of this project would most likely cause
an increase in the amount of and the frequency monies charged.
Page 10 of 10
Project Timeline
Objective Time Frame Person Responsible
Identify and Select Month one of grant cycle WCSO Investigations
dedicated persons for Commander Ed Haffner
project
Training for dedicated Month one of grant cycle WCSO Detective Terie
persons about sex offenders Rinne
and registration
Conduct quarterly address On going every month of WCSO Supervisor
verifications of registered grant cycle
sex offender
Conduct audit of Months 1, 3, 6, 9 of grant WCSO Detective and
municipalities participating cycle Office Technician
in Weld County Sex
Offender Website
Written Procedure for Sex Month 1 of grant cycle WCSO Investigations
Offender Compliance Commander Ed Haffner
Project
Ensure local and state On going every month of WCSO Office Technician
databases contain up to date grant cycle
and timely submission of
information
Solicit Weld County Sex Months 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, of WCSO Detective and
Offender Website grant cycle, one Office Technician
participation for those municipality per month
municipalities not with a goal of mapping
participating in the WCSO those offenders within 4
Sex Offender website weeks of the signing of the
mapping memorandum of
understanding
Communicate and meet Month 2 of grant cycle WCSO Investigations
with District Attorney's Commander Ed Haffner
Office regarding warrants,
prosecution, and sentencing
of non-compliant offenders
Budget Narrative
The proposed budget for the Weld County Sheriffs Office Sex Offender
Registration, Compliance, and Apprehension Project will be monitored by a component
of the project in a supervisory position to ensure that time and equipment are being
efficiently utilized.
WCSO currently maintains sex offender registration for 120 registered sex
offenders and mapping of 80 additional offenders for municipalities. It is expected that
an average of 10 hours annually would be dedicated for the 200 registered sex offenders
to amount to 2000 hours. These 10 hours consists of time spent on initial registration,
conviction research for requirement to register, initial contact with registrant to validate
the registered address, four compliance checks per year, audits with municipalities, audits
of in house files, and miscellaneous contact that may occur. The current base rate for
deputies is $24.67 and the overtime rate is $37.00. The base rate time and overtime
would total to $19,736 and $44,000 respectively. The office technician responsible for
data entry for initial mapping, updating digital images of the registrant annually, and any
moves the registrant makes consists of about 240 hours per year. The current overtime
rate for an office technician is $25.00 an hour, totaling to $6,000.
The travel expenses of travelling to sex offender home for compliance checks is
expected to amount to 20,000 miles annually. The WCSO will provide the vehicle from
the current motor pool. The mileage computation at .49 a mile totals to $9800.
Mervyn Davies of DAVESEL, Inc. has agreed to train the deputies and support
staff for this project. This would need to be covered in two (one day sessions) at $500
Page 1 of 3
per session to accommodate personnel currently working in a two squad schedule. This
is necessary so manpower and coverage for patrol is not compromised.
One cellular telephone would be needed for deputies to use while doing
compliance checks and a voice mail box on the county telephone system specifically for
Sex Offender Registration, Compliance, and Apprehension. These numbers will be
provided to sex offender registrants to contact or leave messages for the project
personnel. The total for these components is $450.
The total anticipated expenditure of this project is $80,886. The WCSO federal
request is for$51,350. The WCSO would exceed 25 %matching funds as a combination
of in-kind and cash of$29,536. Office supplies will be absorbed by the current office
supplies at WCSO. It is expected that the project could be completed within budget. If
the project exceeds the budget the WCSO will continue to work toward the goals with an
additional in-kind match as an additional job duty of the dedicated persons.
Page 2 of 3
Budget Worksheet
I Personnel
Name/Position Computation Cost
Overtime for officers Overtime rate $37.00 x 1200 hours $44,000
10 hours per offender 120 offenders
Overtime clerical staff Overtime rate$25.00 x 240 hours $ 6,000
2 hours per offender 200 offenders
Base pay for officers Average rate $24.6 x 800 hours $19,736
10 hours per offender 80 offenders
Subtotal $69,736
II Travel
Purpose Location Item Computation Cost
Address Weld County Mileage 20,000 miles @ .49 per mile $ 9,800
Compliance
Checks and
Apprehension
Subtotal $ 9,800
III Consultation
Name Service Provided Computation Cost
Mervyn Davies 2 days of training 2 days @ $450 per day $ 900
on sex offender
pathology
Subtotal $ 900
IV Other Costs
Item Computation Cost
Cellular Telephone $32 per month for 12 months $ 384
Minutes
Telephone Accessories Accessories for one cell phone $ 30
Voice Mail Box on the 1 mail box @ $3 per month for 12 months $ 36
Subtotal $ 450
TOTAL PROJECT COSTS $80,886
FEDERAL REQUEST $51,350
NON FEDERAL AMOUNT $29,536
Page 3 of 3
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