In Idaho, people convicted of sex crimes are required to register their address. But they can't live just anywhere. A law passed in 2006 established that convicted sex offenders cannot live within 500 feet of a school. But nowhere in the law does it say who is supposed to monitor those boundaries.
In a month-long investigation, NewsChannel 7 did our own measuring and found sex offenders living inside that boundary and law enforcement agencies unclear on who exactly is responsible.
We started with a random list of 80 sex offenders in the Treasure Valley. We wanted to see if any of them were living too close to schools.
We checked records, drove to each address and then measured the distance from the closest school's property line to 30 homes where registered sex offenders resided.
We found eight offenders breaking the law in Canyon, Elmore and Ada County.
"It makes you feel like maybe things aren't as safe as they could possibly be," said Sarah Gossi, a parent.
School officials were surprised to find out just who their neighbors were.
"I know about the statute but I didn't know we have someone that close," said Ludee Vermaas, principal of Parkview Early Childhood Center in Nampa.
In Mountain Home, we learned a convicted child molester lived for two years within 500 feet of two schools: Mountain Home High and Hacker Middle School. He moved out this month but it was not because police asked.
Officers also did not tell the offender in a Boise apartment to leave. He left before anyone caught him. No measuring was necessary in this example: from his window, the man could look down on Jefferson Elementary’s schoolyard.
In Nampa, we found a sex offender living 350 feet from Parkview Childhood Center.
Also in Nampa, a woman convicted of sexually abusing a child is living 400 feet from West Middle School.
In Middleton, a sex offender's address was 390 feet from Mill Creek Elementary. The Canyon County Sheriff's Office told her to move. She complied, but her new address is near another school.
The law is clear: offenders cannot live within 500 feet of schools. What is not clear is who is supposed to monitor the law.
So who's responsible? KTVB asked that question and got different answers.
The State Police and the Governor's Office say it's up to the individual counties to monitor where sex offenders are living. The counties KTVB spoke to say they're not required to.
A researcher at the state legislature says if the offender is in the county, it's up to the county sheriff. If offender is in the city, then it is up to city police to monitor where they live.
When asked if Boise Police measure the distance between sex offenders' addresses and schools, a spokesman told us that's not the police department's job - it's the county's.
Ada County Sheriff Gary Raney says this isn't so.
"There's no requirement in the law for us to go out and validate that every sex offender doesn't live within 500 feet of a school," Raney said.
State legislator Rich Wills voted for the 500-foot bill in 2006.
"All of those law enforcement agencies that you're referring to, every one of them today in Idaho are understaffed, their workload is incredible," Wills said. "Where do we draw the line of saying, insisting, that you always have to make sure every law is in compliance, every person?"
Whatever the law says or does not say, Raney decided to hire retired Captain Roy Holloway to verify offenders' addresses and their proximity to schools.
"It's something that should be done," Holloway said. "And just because Ada County has so many relative to the rest of the state, we need to put a little more resource into that. And I think we do it fairly well."
The Canyon County Sheriff also uses an officer to verify addresses. The officer has identified violations before and told offenders to move.
This past week, we gave Canyon County a list of offenders who, through our investigation, were found to be living within 500 feet of schools.
Now, three of those offenders have one month to get out.
The others were grandfathered in: if they lived there before July 2006, they can stay.
Even when a county sheriff relies on special officers as monitors, offenders are not always caught.
Here’s an example: A man living in a Garden City trailer is a registered sex offender. The home is less than 200 feet from Anser Charter School. Garden City Police, the Ada County Sheriff's Office and the State Department of Corrections all knew he was there, but did not realize he was breaking the law. It was only when we contacted state authorities and informed them of the violator that he was finally told to move.
Suzanne Burton is the administrator for Anser Charter School.
"We believe in that state statute and we think that legislators passed it for a purpose and that was really to provide extra protection for children who are in school," Burton said. "And so it's disappointing that nobody happened to pick up on this and it had to be the media who notices that he lives within the 500-foot radius."
Remember the guy in Elmore County who was living between two schools? It got the attention of Elmore County Sheriff Rick Layher, who is changing policy after our investigation.
"We went out today because you brought up a pretty good point," Layher said. "About every six months we'll set up a system where we go out and check.”
"Clearly some system needs to be created that it's easy for law enforcement agencies to tell this area is within 500 feet of a school," Burton said.
"Perhaps this law isn't working," Wills said. "I don't know what else we would do though if this law is on the books. It's up to the interpretation of the prosecutor or the law enforcement to enforce those rules."
"I want them to answer it because I want them to take responsibility,” said Anser Charter School parent Victoria Nolan. “I want them to say 'well, if we're going to have a law that says that they can't be that close to a school, then enforce it.' Don't let it happen."
Violation of the 500-foot law is a misdemeanor.
The sex offenders who were told to move by police as a result of our story now have cases pending with prosecutors.
And there are other cases already in the courts, filed by officers who caught offenders within 500 feet.
The Ada County and Canyon County Sheriff's Offices and Garden City Police all have their own sex offender monitoring programs. They have the programs because they feel it's important, not because it's required by law.
Something that jumped out during this story's investigation was that sex offenders who live in halfway houses are exempt from the law and can live near schools.
We learned of this exemption when we found a sex offender living 200 feet from Madison Early Childhood Center in Boise. It turns out, he's not breaking the law. One state legislator told us one reason for the exemption is because people living in halfway houses are already being supervised and are in the company of other people. He said there is a belief that offenders in this environment are unlikely to re-offend.
Still, it doesn't sit well with one parent we spoke with.
"I guess there's always a loophole," Nolan said. "It's tragic, it really is tragic. I think it's going back on what they said they were going to do."
A nurse at the halfway house told us the offender is old, and that he's not a danger to anybody.
The 59-year-old man was convicted in 1990 of sexually abusing a child.
