I’m with Scott Janz on this one. The WHOI (channel 19) news team recently did an exposé on child sex offenders who were living within 500 feet of Peoria area schools.

In Illinois, it’s illegal for child sex offenders to live within 500 feet of schools. The only exception is if the offender owned the home before the summer of 2000.

WHOI checked public records of sex offenders’ addresses in Peoria, East Peoria, Washington, and even Bloomington to see if they were complying with the law. They didn’t find any violators in Washington. The violations they found in East Peoria and Bloomington were dealt with quickly:

Two hours afters after [East Peoria Police Chief Ed] Papis learned of our findings, he sent out two officers. A man found to be living about 450 feet from an elementary school was put on notice. He now has a month to move.

Bloomington police have given a child sex offender there fourteen days.

Yet, WHOI found seven sex offenders living within 500 feet of District 150 schools. The response they got from the Peoria Police Department? Ho-hum:

“Originally it is the offenders responsibility to find some place to live that is within the legal boundaries, so they have to take some responsibility themselves,” said [Peoria Police Department spokesperson] Ann Ruggles. […]

When asked if the spokeswoman thought the department did enough, she responded: “Yeah, I do. With the personnel that we have at this point, but I don’t know what else basically we could do. I’m sure you’ve told me and I’m sure there are people out there who are in violation.” […]

“We will check those out, but the person, the convicted person should take responsibility, too. If we go out and they are found to be not compliant, then they will have to suffer the consequences,” said Ruggles.

I think we’re all aware that it is each person’s individual responsibility to obey the law, but thanks for reminding us, Ms. Ruggles. As far as your department doing enough “with the personnel that [you] have at this point,” I beg to differ. You have seven sex offenders living within 500 feet of District 150 schools. I submit to you that that fact proves your department is clearly not doing enough.

Martha Hammer is reported as being “the woman over Peoria’s sex offender registration.” So, they’re already telling you their address — how much extra time would it take to type that into the computer and see how close it is to a school? How about taking a couple officers off the seat-belt violation beat and having them work on keeping sex offenders away from children?

It is outrageous for the Peoria Police spokeswoman to shrug her shoulders and say the department is doing all it can. In a city with eight unsolved murders yet this year, this latest scandal further deteriorates our lack of confidence in the Police to enforce public safety. Take a cue from East Peoria and send officers out to address this immediately if you haven’t done so already, and then tell people what action you’ve taken.