BCSO asking for staff to handle sex-offender program
Posted on Sunday, June 29, 2008
BENTONVILLE - Don Townsend with the Benton County Sheriff's Office announced during Thursday's Benton County Personnel Committee meeting that the BCSO is looking to hire an additional deputy to handle the program that keeps tabs on sex offenders.
The new deputy would be a full-time staff member responsible for keeping watch over sex offenders to ensure they are not living near schools or daycare centers.
The BCSO currently has two part-time officers and a volunteer who handle the program.
"This is frightening, and it is rampant. It is so rampant that it has become a television show (NBC's'To Catch a Predator' series )," said Marge Wolf, a representative of the committee, when she learned there are currently 190 registered sex offenders in the county. Cities like Bella Vista, Bentonville, Rogers and Siloam Springs have their own programs to keep track of sex offenders.
Without someone to keep tabs on sex offenders," they disappear into the system," Townsend said.
The BCSO also requested three jail deputies, a jail operations sergeant and two additional transport deputies during Thursday's meeting.
The Personnel Committee will meet again at 3 p.m.
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