Sheriff provides info for safe Halloween

Van Wert County Sheriff’s Office information

Van Wert County Sheriff Thomas M. Riggenbach announced the availability of a sex offender mapping and alerting service that aids county residents in avoiding dangerous homes. There are approximately 49 registered sex offenders in Van Wert County and “Offender Watch” is a service the public can access by visiting the sheriff’s office’s website and clicking the “sex offender” link.

Sheriff Riggenbach encourages local residents to check any address where they or their family spend time. The mapping and address feature found on the website will pinpoint exactly where an offender lives.

Sheriff Riggenbach said county residents will also find many other beneficial tools, such as the ability to sign up for free and automatic email notifications when an offender moves within a specified radius of any registered address.

If a family plans to trick-or-treat in a different neighborhood, the family can register the address of a friend or other family member in that neighborhood ahead of time so they know if there are houses to avoid.  Local residents can also register the address of a babysitter, grandparent or friend where their children spend a lot of time. The alerts are in real time and are sent out via email as soon as a new offender has registered with the Van Wert County Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff Riggenbach stated the benefit to local residents of registering for the free confidential email alert service is that it allows important addresses to be monitored by keeping residents updated on new registered offenders and making it unnecessary for residents to have to check their important addresses daily or even weekly.

As part of the monitoring process for registered county sex offenders, the Van Wert County Sheriff’s Office recently conducted address verifications for the second time on all sexual predators in the county, which showed that all offenders were living at the address they had on file with the sheriff’s office.

The website for the Van Wert County Sheriff’s Office is www.vanwertcountysheriff.com. County residents who click on the “sex offender” link are taken to the sex offender page of the website. Residents can then hit “click here” and will be directed to the search page to look for registered offenders. Local residents can then search for offenders, register for email alerts, etc., by clicking on the appropriate icon.

Sheriff Riggenbach hopes everyone has a fun and safe Halloween and encourages county residents to know where registered sex offenders reside in their area, so they can make the best choice for safe and enjoyable Halloween activities.