Gilroy
– Sheriff Laurie Smith united 12 counties to apply for a coveted
state grant, and lucked out, winning $953,250 to register and track
sex offenders across county lines.
Gilroy – Sheriff Laurie Smith united 12 counties to apply for a coveted state grant, and lucked out, winning $953,250 to register and track sex offenders across county lines.
“Not only did we get the grant, we got approximately $200,000 more than we’d asked for,” said Sgt. Ed Wise, spokesperson for the office.
Only one grant is given for each of the state’s seven regions, explained Detective Sgt. Marc Tarabini, supervisor of the county’s Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement task force. To apply, a county must have more than 1,000 sex registrants. Santa Clara County met the requirement, but smaller counties didn’t. Smith opted to draw the counties together, to bring SAFE teams into new areas. Though the other 11 counties have sexual assault investigators, said Tarabini, none have SAFE teams, which tackle sex offenders’ parole, probation and surveillance in addition to registration compliance.
Most counties signed on, and the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services gave a thumbs-up for the funds.
“She realized that the majority of the counties in our region didn’t meet the minimum threshold,” said Tarabini, “so she asked Sheriffs in other counties to form a coalition and make a regional SAFE team, and we’d apply for the grant on their behalf … We were able to get the grant, I think, because we had such a great idea.”
A Sheriff’s office press release called it “one of the most creative efforts in the state to develop and implement a regional, cooperative approach to addressing the sex offender registration problem.”
The counties stretch from the Oregon border south to Monterey, ringing the Bay Area. As the state’s first and longest-running SAFE team, Santa Clara County will coordinate the effort, starting with a three-day training next week. Each county assigned an investigator to coordinate with the cross-county effort. Tarabini hopes the effort will improve communication across county lines, to keep track of northern California’s sex offenders.
The coalition includes Contra Costa, Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, Marin, Mendocino, Monterey, Napa, San Benito, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and Solano counties.
