Now, if an offender is caught skipping town without telling police, he's usually looking at only two weeks in jail for a first-time offense, Benton County prosecutors say. I've had warrants out for their arrests for at least a couple of years. Making community notification work better may involve plucking ideas from the past and the present. Some Washington police agencies now put the names of sex offenders on the Internet. In King County, the sheriff's office doesn't list home addresses on its Web site, but it does list sex offender names and physical descriptions.
Supporters say Web sites provide an easy way to retrieve information.
But not for everyone. If you have a poor neighborhood you want to notify, I wouldn't use computers. Those are not going to be the people with home computers. Hansens doesn't make excuses for why some homes in his territory didn't receive notification about a particular sex offender, but he said his job would be easier if neighbors actually spoke to one another occasionally. But some say protection from child molesters and rapists must begin in the home.