09/15/2011
By Alex Tomlin
Sheriff's deputies keep close tabs on 19
ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Two days after a homeless sex offender, [name withheld], was arrested for sneaking into a bedroom through a window and raping two teenage sisters; News 13 is learning just how many homeless sex offenders are roaming Albuquerque streets.
They are supposed to be tracked and monitored closely, but that can be hard to do when their address is listed as under a bridge or just Route 66.
- Well, you repeal the residency restrictions and this probably won't be a problem!
“Right now we have 19 that are homeless,” Bernalillo County Sgt. Joshua Campos said.
He said his deputies are hard at work, keeping tabs on homeless sex offenders in Albuquerque.
“They do come in once a week to update us and tell us that they are still homeless,” said Campos. “If they change their living arrangements within 10 days they have to notify us.”
He said his detectives also do random checks to see if the rapists and child molesters are where they say they will be.
- I am sure not all are rapists and child molesters, but that sells the news!
“If they are homeless they still have to give us a physical location of where they are homeless at,” said Campos.
Some of those locations, under the central bridge downtown or just Route 66. Once a month deputies team up with a number of agencies, including Probation and Parole, to do a sweep to make sure offenders are living where they say they are.
Troy Ruplinger, with probation and parole, said homeless sex offenders in their system have a little bit tougher restrictions.
“They report a lot more frequently when they are homeless, they report three times a week,” said Ruplinger.
- Three times a week? That is extremely excessive, IMO!
- The online registry prevents them from getting many jobs, if any, and the residency restrictions is what is causing the homelessness, in most cases. So how are they suppose to get a job and keep it? Catch-22?
Deputies have a tougher time because they can't force their offenders to find work or a permanent place to stay. But Sgt. Campos said his detectives keep homeless sex offenders on a short leash, “It's not as difficult as you would think.”
- I am so sick of people calling ex-sex offenders "their offenders," as if they are property or something!
Sex offenders on parole are required to wear a GPS tracker, but that doesn't always apply to the homeless because they have nowhere to charge the device.
Currently only 53 of the 171 sex offenders on probation or parole have GPS monitors.
