Sex Offender Notification

(prompted by a Renton blog posting)

A quick reminder that the Seattle Police website has some excellent resources to identify the (approximate) locations of sex offenders in our area. These include a census tract map: hover your mouse over a tract to see the number of offenders in that tract, then click on it for a clickable list of offenders. You can also sign up for E-mail notification of the arrival of offenders. The excellent FAQ section should indeed answer all your questions.

There are no level 2 or 3 offenders in Miller Park (census tract 76) right now, although we had more than our fair share years ago (see old newsletter articles from Dec. 1990 and Spring 1996. ) when 7 level 2 & 3 offenders (with a potential for 16) were living in a building on 24th (which has now been "gentrified" into a very nice looking building).

Notes and opinions

• Seattle Police continue to do an excellent job of keeping us informed in this difficult area
  
  
• Offender levels: 'scariness' increases from 1 (no public notice) to 2 (notices available) to 3 (wide public notice). The ranking system seems uneven around the state, but Seattle clearly does a good, honest job.
  
  
• The reports on level 2 and 3 offenders are indeed scary, and may reinforce the public perception of the "scary stranger" being a major concern, but most offenses are probably committed by somebody known to the victim: check out the Safety Information section on the Seattle Police site for valuable educational resources.
  
  
• No, I'm not trying to scare you: I was concerned by the alarmist views in the Renton blog posting, but was so impressed by the SPD resources that I wanted to share them.