State Sen. Tim Grendell wants to test 'sex offender radar'

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Reginald Fields
Cleveland Plain Dealer

Columbus - A state lawmaker is promoting a Cuyahoga County company's idea for a new electronic device that could warn people when a sex offender is near.

The personal alert system, called Offendar (short for offender radar), would be about the size of a key fob and would vibrate when an offender wearing a monitoring bracelet is within 50 yards.

Supporters say the untested system could be a non-intrusive, real-time way to alert users when an offender is close and let them take steps to protect themselves. But opponents, including a spokeswoman for a rape crisis center, said the device could cause unnecessary panic while not guaranteeing any level of safety.

State Sen. Tim Grendell, a champion of lock-'em-up-and-throw-away-the-key legislation, has invited the Chagrin Falls company behind the technology to demonstrate it today during a Statehouse hearing.

"If there is someone in your area that the state has decided should be wearing an ankle bracelet, you have no idea," said Jerry Pignolet, one of the principals in Offendar LLC. Offendar "is not going to deter him, but it gives you an opportunity to gather your family, get in the car and lock the doors."

But David Singleton, executive director of the Ohio Justice & Policy Center, said the system plays on fears in the community while penalizing people who have already served time in prison for their crimes.

Singleton called Offendar "utterly ridiculous and absurd."

"What are we trying to do, make it impossible for people to get on their feet again and be productive citizens?" he said. "This is crazy, and I'm outraged by it, because it doesn't make my daughter any safer."

Lindsay Fello-Sharpe, of the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center, said 90 percent of sex crime victims are assaulted by a person they know or trust.

"This just plays on the great myths out there, such as the stranger-danger myth that's not true," said Fello-Sharpe. "It's sending the wrong message and setting people up with a false sense of security."

Grendell, a Chester Township Republican, envisions Offendar helping to monitor the worst offenders, such as pedophiles.

He noted that a bill that would force sex offenders to display bright green license plates on their cars lost momentum this year because police and prosecutors thought it would invite attacks on offenders and afford them too little privacy.

While the state has an online database of registered sex offenders, lawmakers have been looking for a way to more quickly alert people when they are going about normal business away from a computer.

Offendar could be it, Grendell said, because it does that while still offering offenders a measure of privacy. When the alerts go off, for both the offender and the person with the device, neither knows who the other is.

"It doesn't point to the Joe over there and say 'There he is' or 'Shine a light on him,' " Grendell said. "But it gives you the idea that you may not want to let your children go out unattended.

"I'd like to test it out and see if it can work."

Grendell is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Criminal Justice Committee, which meets today. He invited Pignolet and his three business partners to present the idea to other lawmakers.

If his colleagues support it, Grendell said he could propose legislation to bring Offendar to Ohio. But many questions need to be answered.

A big one would be determining which of the state's 16,000 registered sex offenders would have to wear the bracelet and whether to automatically put the alert devices at places like schools and day care centers.

The company, which is trying to patent its system and won't divulge the specific technology behind it, would need up to 18 months to further develop it. It's not used anywhere, so no one is certain how well it really will work. And cost estimates are still fluctuating. The company expects that a personal alert device would cost between $15 and $45 a year.

Also, other companies out there might want to pitch their own monitoring systems to try to win a private contract with the state.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio said Grendell shouldn't waste state taxpayers' time or money on such a system.

"The assumption that someone once did something bad and is still a danger to everyone else is simply false," said Jeffrey Gamso of the ACLU. "It's going to keep people scared, when the majority of these people are unlikely to ever offend again."

Are there any other groups of people you would like to be warned about being near? In-laws?

So to warn people a sex offender is near, you give them a vibrator. Nice.

And JB, I like your idea of the in-law-adar.

I can barely feel my phone vibrate let alone the red-alert vibrations of a sex offender warning system.

Why don't we just put microchips in their heads to keep them under control!