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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- The Iron County sheriff is making use of a nonprofit organization's free service that notifies residents in unincorporated areas when a registered sex offender moves into their neighborhood.
"I just figured it was a service to the public," Sheriff Mark Gower said.
"All the information we're releasing is public record anyway. To find out if there's a sex offender in your neighborhood, you have to know who to call or have a computer," he said. "Some people don't have a computer, so this is a service for people to know who's in your neighborhood."
The automated phone calls are made to residents listed in the phone book. The calls disclose the name of the offender, his address and conviction.
The message also includes a plea not to harm the registered sex offender or vandalize his property, said Claudia Corrigan, vice president of the Florida-based organization A Child is Missing.
The nonprofit group provides the sex offender-notification calls free to law enforcement agencies.
Iron County is believed to be the first police agency in Utah to use a system that notifies residents directly about sex offenders' whereabouts.
"How many of us know our neighbors?" Corrigan asked.
"Sometimes these neighbors are the people that might be baby-sitting your children. Knowledge is power; by giving them the power they'd be very careful to keep their children away from certain streets and certain areas."
There are some mishaps. Earlier this month, A Child Is Missing mistakenly called a neighborhood in Ephraim in Sanpete County.
Gower said the calls were meant to go to a specific neighborhood, but a software glitch routed the calls to the same address in a different city.
"We try to be very careful, but you know how computers are," Corrigan said.
Gower said the feedback has been positive since implementing the system several months ago.
"I felt there could be some negative reaction, but I've had a lot more positive reaction to it. I've had people approach me on the street and tell me this has been really great," he said.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
