The following is a press release from an organization unaffiliated with Voice of OC. The views expressed here are not those of Voice of OC.
TODD SPITZER
Supervisor, Third District
March 27, 2018
Montana Sudul, Communications Specialist
Melanie Eustice, Chief of Staff
(714)834-5492
Spitzer Applauds Board for Rescinding Vote
Warns Colleagues About Sex Offender Data
(Orange County, CA) – Supervisor Spitzer applauded his colleagues for joining him in rescinding their votes to place homeless individuals in tents in Orange County cities. Supervisor Spitzer voted against the original plan, which passed 4-1, which he argued could place dangerous individuals—in addition to homeless who need intensive mental and substance abuse treatment—right into the heart of three Orange County cities—Irvine, Laguna Niguel, and Huntington Beach without a shelter operating plan. The Bridges at Kraemer Place, in Spitzer’s district, operates with nearly 200 occupants who are screened for sex offender status. Before Spitzer went into the community to gain support of this project, he already had an explainable operating plan that excluded sex offenders from residing there.
To keep Orange County residents informed, Supervisor Todd Spitzer is releasing the verified numbers of all current sex offenders on probation and parole in the county. “I authored Megan’s Law on the Internet because the public deserves to know who lives in and around our neighborhoods,” said Spitzer, a longtime champion for public safety. According to the California Attorney General’s website, Orange County is home to 2,333 convicted sex offenders. According to the respective agencies, 698 are being supervised by County Probation or State Parole, and all are monitored by Global Positioning System (GPS) except those who have absconded.
“We cannot shock our communities and shove the homeless into any city,” Supervisor Spitzer said, “The Board cannot jeopardize the community’s trust in working to solve homelessness, which is why I voted against the original plan. Going forward, we must keep our residents informed and aware of any changes to our shelter operating plans.”
The locations of 2,333 Orange County sex offenders are available on the Attorney General’s website. According to records obtained from OC Probation, their department oversees 393 sex offenders divided into two caseload types; Probation, or local cases, and Post Release Community Supervision (PCS) which includes felons who were sentenced to county jail as a result of Assembly Bill 109. Probation supervises 337 sex offenders from local cases and 56 from PSC/109, 20 of which are members of the transient population in Orange County. State Parole handles 305 sex offender cases in Orange County, 66 of which are transients. 46 sex offenders under State Parole supervision have absconded from supervision, meaning they have removed their mandated GPS monitoring device, and their locations are now unknown. Certainly the “transient” and “abscond” categories could easily end up in “low barrier” tent shelters.
According to the same data obtained from OC Probation and State Parole, one sex offender is located in the Civic Center/Courtyard area and another is in and around the Courtyard. Three parolee sex offenders were located out of the Civic Center in Downtown Santa Ana on Friday, March 23, after Spitzer’s inquiries to State Parole.
“The fact is there are felons here in Orange County that Parole cannot account for their location. The risks are unknown,” Supervisor Spitzer argued. “I encourage the County to develop a sex offender management plan for all of our shelters.”
For assistance interpreting any of the data, contact Supervisor Spitzer’s office at (714) 834-3330, or contact the County Probation Department or the California Department of Corrections Office of Research.
Anyone can search for sex offenders in their area using the Megan’s Law website, https://www.meganslaw.ca.gov/, due to the law joint-authored by Spitzer (AB 488 (2008) Parra and Spitzer).
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Attachment 1: Orange County Sex Offenders Under Direct Supervision
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