Together, it is our
responsibility to protect our children and other vulnerable people, whether on
your block or in your surrounding neighborhood, city or county.
Legislation has provided us the information on where registered sex offenders
live. It is our responsibility as citizens of our community to keep
ourselves informed of their whereabouts.
Registered sex offenders do
have the right to live and work in our community, as long as they don't break
the law or the conditions of the release. Spokane Police Department (SPD)
detectives assigned to monitor sex offenders provide all RSO notification flyers
to the substations. Teams of C.O.P.S. volunteers then distribute the
flyers to residents and businesses within a 3-block radius of the RSO's address.
Every
C.O.P.S. Substation
maintains a public access binder containing all level 2 and level 3 registered
sex offenders in the city. The flyers contained in the books are updated
every week as soon as an offender reports a change of address to SPD.
The amount of time each
offender is required to register varies depending on the conditions of their
release. Some must register for life, while others may only be required to
register for two or three years. Everyone has the right to look at the
flyers, but they may not be taken out of the book or reproduced in any way
without the approval of SPD.
