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The Cleveland Plain Dealer, December 5, 2007
The Columbus Dispatch, December, 5, 2007
The Cleveland Plain Dealer, December 4, 2007
Ohio Senate Hearing Announcement
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Offendar would go after sex offenders

The News-Herald, Lake County, Ohio
7/31/2008
Article in Adobe Acrobat

Betsy Scott , BScott@News-Herald.com

When 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford was raped and murdered by registered sex offender Evander Couey in 2005, the news got under the skin of Russell Township's Ron Crowl. His own daughter was similar in age, and he works with a number of children as a youth sports coach.

"It stuck with me for some time," Crowl said. "It could happen anywhere."

Crowl wondered how parents could effectively protect their children. He couldn't think of any proactive methods that exist to help prevent such heinous crimes. That could change if Offendar - a patented sex offender alert system on which he's been working the last two years - gets the legislative backing and funding it needs.

Crowl, who owns a software company, partnered with fellow Russell residents Kathleen Dangelo, an attorney; marketing specialist Jerry Pignolet; and engineer Craig Morris of Aurora to come up with a working prototype that was demonstrated before the Ohio Legislative Subcommittee on Criminal Justice in December.

"It got a favorable response," Dangelo said. "Our next step is to create awareness in the public and gain the attention of the legislature." Offendar, envisioned as a key-fob-sized device, is designed as a personal threat-detection system that would respond to a corresponding court-ordered electronic anklet monitor on a convicted sex offender. It would provide a vibrating, auditory or visual alarm if an offender got within a certain, adjustable range of a child with the device.

Conversely, the offender's anklet would sound before he crossed the forbidden line and would continue to go off unless he left the area. It can be programmed to react differently based on the level of offender, Crowl said.
There also are plans for permanent and mobile perimeter alerts. This would enable schools, zoos and shopping malls to trigger alerts to their main or security offices. The mobile alerts could be used at carnivals, fairs, sporting events and other temporary attractions.

In addition, the ankle bracelet will have a memory that stores data about the wearer's actions, to be retrieved by law enforcement officials.

The creators say Offendar improves upon existing and proposed sex offender measures, such as colored license plates, Global Positioning System tracking, Web site postings and legislation increasing penalties.

"They do not provide individuals with any method for knowing whether a potential threat is in their immediate vicinity at any given moment," Dangelo said. "And the high daily cost of GPS tracking systems make courts reluctant to impose continuing monitoring requirements on released sex offenders."

The GPS system costs $350 to $400 a month per offender, said Geauga County Intensive Probation Director Susan Doudican. By comparison, the Offendar device would involve a one-time cost of $150 per offender, Dangelo said. The price for the general public is expected to be $15 to $35.

Although the American Civil Liberties Union has expressed concern about such a device, Dangelo said the system would largely maintain the offender's privacy, unlike the license plates.

State Sen. Tim Grendell, R-Chester Township, is among the local leaders and law enforcers Offendar representatives have approached about the device. Grendell arranged for them to testify before the criminal justice subcommittee in December. He said he is working to roll provisions for Offendar into Senate Bill 208, which deals with felony sentencing, among other things.

"The governor and speaker of the House won't push anything through unless we show them how it will work economically," Grendell said. "We believe this will actually save money long-term. "The governor is saying we have to shift money. ... We're getting there, but we're not there yet."

The senator said he hoped to have the legislation ready by November or December. In the meantime, Offendar creators are asking interested Ohioans to contact their state legislators in support of the system.

©The News-Herald 2008