The Harford County Sheriff?s Office is one of Maryland?s more proactive law enforcement agencies when it comes to keeping tabs on people convicted of molesting children. It was among the first to list all of its registered child sex offenders online. Now it is stepping up its efforts even more.
Sheriff R. Thomas Golding is asking the County Council for funding to hire a full-time civilian investigator, at a salary of $38,135 a year plus benefits, to verify the whereabouts of convicted sex offenders, and a records clerk, salaried at $26,000 annualy, to support the investigator.
“Weekly, we are, unfortunately, getting more and more [convicted child sex offenders registering],” said Bob Thomas, a spokesman for the office.
As of Tuesday, there were 95 names on the Harford County Sheriff?s Office Web site. Maryland law requires them to register their addresses at least once a year and also whenever they move. Local law enforcement agencies are supposed to verify the information each time.
But Golding decided to go above and beyond that. In addition to what the law mandates, the department started randomly checking addresses last year. Golding said he believed his was the only law enforcement agency in the state doing that.
Glenn Mina, who retired from the department in 2002 after 30 years of service, was hired on a part-time basis to handle the job.
Recently, Golding announced a second phase of the monitoring program: checking whether registered child sex offenders are working where they said they are. This is also information they are required to register, though Golding has yet to determine if he is going to add it to his Web site.
