District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis and District 2 Councilman Kevin Faulconer hosted a community forum to discuss the impact of hundreds of sexual predators being released in the downtown community on Aug. 16, in response to resident concerns expressed at a Megan’s Law-required meeting held in July with the San Diego police and state parole board.
Concerns were raised from the startling statistics found on the Megan’s Law Web site, which shows that more than 300 registered sex offenders reside in downtown.
“In my mind, people have a right to be concerned because we have an over-concentration of registered sex offenders in the downtown area,” said Faulconer. “There are sex offenders in every community, which is an unfortunate part of life. But in the downtown community alone we have over 300, which is unacceptable to me. Just because parole has been doing that in the past does not mean we should do that in the future.”
As reported in the July 2006 issue of the San Diego Downtown News, the East Village has been an ideal location for parole to house sex offenders because of the cheap housing, job availability and lack of schools.
“San Diego certainly was not a family area a few years ago,” Faulconer said. “It was industrial, it was tattoo parlors and bars. That was not a place that you would a) take your family and b) raise a family. That has dramatically changed over the last 10 years.”
Faulconer pointed out the new construction going on downtown, including the addition of park spaces and a children’s museum.
“Downtown now is a neighborhood, just like any other. It’s an emerging neighborhood; we want families, we want kids, but we don’t need the over-concentration of sex offenders “¦ In my opinion it had become a dumping ground for parole because it was easy to do. We’re going to change that,” he said.
The main goal of the forum was awareness, getting the knowledge to the public so that they can act and inform themselves, Faulconer said.
“We spoke a lot about Jessica’s Law, Prop. 83, and what that would mean if that gets passed,” he continued. “In my opinion it’s tremendously important that we pass that because it will give the city tools to have larger exclusion zones for sex offenders.”
Dumanis agrees, explaining that under Prop. 83 no registered sex offender can live within 2,000 feet of a school or park that children go to and that local areas can enact safety zones where kids congregate.
However, this could become part of the problem rather than the solution, explains Parole Administrator Tim Fowler.
“What’s been created is that you have a limited area where this particular group [sex offenders] can live, so when you place restrictions on them, they all tend to congregate. So if you want to be within the law, and if you have a limited space, yeah, you may get an increased number of that particular group,” Fowler said. “That’s something that has been created by certain laws that have been passed, not that you have probation or parole being irresponsible in placing them there.”
Fowler also pointed out that every sex offender is not a high-risk sex offender. There are cases of 19-year-olds having consensual sex with a 16- or 17-year-old and sometimes they even end up marrying the same person they went to prison for having sex with. It is important to remember the differences, he said.
“We all have an obligation to ensure the safety of our family and we all want to live in safe communities,” Fowler said. “Unless you keep them all in prison and never let them out, they’re going to have to stay somewhere. While you don’t want to put the public at risk, you’re going to create the situation where, where do you put them?”
Fowler said that he understands the intent of the law, but people also have to realize that crimes happen, with people not on parole or probation and even not on the registered sex offender list.
“You can lock them up and never let them out and you’re still going to have children who adults are praying upon, because oftentimes they are in the home,” Fowler said, “The general public believes you have these predators snatching children off the street, and sometimes they’re in the home and they are opportunists.”
Dumanis agrees that the public needs to be aware that most child molesting cases occur with somebody that is known to the victim.
“People need to remember, one way or another, they have to have those conversations with their children about good touching and bad touching,” Dumanis said. “You just need to let them know that they shouldn’t keep secrets from you, because you’re there to protect them.”