By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Wood County has two sheriff’s deputies keeping track of registered sexual offenders – and making local residents aware when they move into their neighborhoods.
Deputies Jill Holland and Isaiah Loar currently have 118 active sex offenders on their caseload.
Offenders must let the deputies know where they are living, working or going to school. The deputies keep track of the vehicles they drive, and their physical descriptions. Though not required under Ohio law, the deputies go beyond just waiting for the offenders to check in with them.
“I go to their houses, knock on their doors, and stand there talking with them,” Loar said.
“That is not required by the Ohio Revised Code. That’s just what our office does,” Holland said.
At least twice a year, Loar makes home visits to each offender.
“Most of them are living where they say they are living, and doing what they are supposed to be doing,” Loar said.
The home visits are unannounced, “but they all know I’m going to come around some time,” Loar said.
If Loar doesn’t find an offender home during two consecutive visits, he checks in with neighbors.
“Neighbors everywhere are nosy,” he said.
The deputies keep track of the three tiers of sexual offenders:
- Tier 1 (formerly called sexual offenders) have to register for 15 years. Wood County has 54 in this category.
- Tier 2 (formerly called habitual sexual offenders) have to register for 25 years. Wood County has 28 in this category.
- Tier 3 (formerly called sexual predators) have to register for their lifetime. Wood County has 36 of these.
Wood County sees more fluctuations in its numbers than many counties since the Northwest Community Corrections Center and the Juvenile Residential Center both accept sexual offenders.
There are currently five women on the local sexual offender registry.
The offenders are required to let the deputies know about changes in their residences within 72 hours. They are not allowed to live within 1,000 feet of a school or registered day care. The restrictions don’t cover college campuses.
“We have had some who live in the dorms,” Loar said. In those cases, the deputies notify the university.
Though the deputies check in on juvenile sex offenders, they are not permitted to notify neighbors.
“One could live next door to you, and you wouldn’t know,” Holland said.
The sheriff’s office can’t put more restrictions offenders, but parole or probation terms can limit an offender’s ability to hang out in parks or be around children.
Holland and Loar were recently recognized with a national award for their outreach and management of the sex offender registry. In Wood County, 20.4 percent of the population has signed up for email notices about sex offenders in their communities. That is the second highest percentage in the nation, with the only area with a higher percentage in one section of New Orleans.
“We just do our job,” Loar said.
“I’m very proud of them,” Wood County Sheriff Mark Wasylyshyn said about the award. “I think it’s their diligence and persistence – and their attention to detail.”
“I think we rock at our program,” Holland said. “I feel that compared to other counties, we are really on top of things.”
Though Holland and Loar take their jobs very seriously, they also realize that the public can sometimes overreact to the news that a sex offender is moving into the area. They realize that since they have more information on the offenders, they may have more realistic concerns.
“Very few are the kind that grabbed someone off the street and raped them,” Loar said.
It’s more likely for an offender to have been an 18-year-old involved with a 15-year-old.
Neighbors can’t keep sex offenders from moving into a community. In fact, Loar said he currently has three sex offenders living within a few blocks of his home.
But some neighbors can make it pretty uncomfortable for them once they are there. The deputies recalled a man in a rural area of Wood County, whose neighbor put up an 8-foot by 4-foot sign saying, “Sex offender lives here,” with an arrow pointing to the offender’s home. Two months later, the offender moved out.
A few years ago, there was also a case in Perrysburg where an offender moved in.
“The entire neighborhood was ready to kill him,” Loar said, noting the man was getting death threats. In that case, the offender stayed put and the issue died down.
The deputies try to remember that the offenders are humans who get labeled for their wrongs.
“There are some who ought to be on registrations, and there are some who should be on a billboard out in front of their house,” Loar said.
Holland remembers getting a call from an offender asking when he might be able to attend one of his daughter’s choir concerts. She explained there was no reason he couldn’t attend them.
“He was absolutely ecstatic,” Holland said.
And Loar recalls being at his son’s T-ball game at Carter Park, when a registered offender was there watching his own son play. The sheriff’s office got three calls reporting that man being at the ballgame – which was allowed.
“They are still human beings,” Loar said.
“I treat them like human beings,” he said. “They have a duty to register, and I have a job to do.”
The offenders are more cooperative if treated fairly, the deputies said. They are more likely to report getting a different car, changing jobs, or even getting highlights in their hair.
“If you treat them like crap, you aren’t going to get the information you want,” Loar said.
“They have respect for Deputy Loar and I,” Holland said.
Victims of sexual offenders can check in with the deputies for the status of their offender. And any county resident is allowed to sign up for notifications on sexual offenders.
When offenders move into a neighborhood, notices are mailed out to any address within 1,000 feet.
But citizens can request notices for any sex offenders within a five-mile radius. They can sign up for notifications at http://sheriffalerts.com/cap_main.php?office=55190.
“If they know we’re keeping an eye on them, they are less likely to offend,” Loar said. “But there are others who just don’t care and they are going to re-offend, no matter what.”
