Sex Offenders Near Albany Schools Pt. 2

At least 15 sex offenders have moved within 1,000 feet of a school or daycare center in Albany since a county law was passed against it in September of 2006. Shortly after that law was passed the District Attorney’s office and police departments in Albany County conducted a sweep to move the offenders in violation of the county law. But since then, there have been no new sweeps, but new offenders have moved near schools and have not been asked to move.

Why haven’t police moved the men in violation? The Albany Police spokesperson, Jim Miller tells me that his department was under the impression that the D.A. was not going to prosecute these men if they were arrested. Miller says that’s because there’s a lawsuit pending regarding the laws constitutionality. I decided to ask the D.A. if that’s really the case.

“That’s something I learned as a result of your inquiry,” D.A. David Soares said. “However, that’s news to myself and news to anyone in this office. We prosecute crimes and cases that are presented to our office.”

Albany Police were made aware of the sex offenders in violation of this law some time ago. An Albany taxpayer and resident emailed the police when he realized the offenders weren’t being moved. The police responded by telling that resident that there was a plan in place to removed the offenders in violation. That email correspondence took place in September of 2007 and those men are still living less than 1,000 feet from local schools.

After talking to the District Attorney I went back to the police and told them what I’d found. They sent me an email that said, “In the past few weeks our commander of the detective division has met with the county attorney’s office and the District Attorney’s office and they have all come to the conclusion that they are going to press forward with enforcing the law regardless of the pending lawsuit or the question of legality of the law.”

That email went on to say that, “ Detectives from the children and family services unit are in the process of notifying anyone that lives within that 1,000 feet boundary that they are in violation of this law.” The police say that if these men do not move they will be arrested.

You can be sure that I’ll be checking back with the police to make sure they follow through and remove these offenders from places that children attend school. I’ll let you know what I find.