Sexual predator program loses funding
By James Cullum
Fairfax County's child predator prevention and prosecution program will be eliminated unless the Board of Supervisors agrees to fund it or find funding for it.
Since 2004, the Protecting Children Against Sex Offenders (P'CASO) program has been the county's main resource against sex offenders.
A staff of six county detectives work full time in the program; four detectives ensuring that offenders are in compliance with the terms of their release, while the remaining two detectives conduct Internet surveillance for a county that has upwards of 400 registered sex offenders.
Federal funds sustained the program for almost four years, but were not forthcoming when earmarks were slashed in the federal budget.
U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-10th) has earmarked the program since 2004, but Wolf made only two earmarks this year, requesting the continuance of funding for the Dulles Metrorail extension and the funding of anti-gang and drug task forces.
“Unfortunately, with the trend going toward no more earmarks, good programs like this that do a public service and protect children won't be around,” said Dan Scandling, a spokesman for Wolf.
The Board of Supervisors is considering allocating $900,000 to maintain the program for the next fiscal year.
This week Braddock District Supervisor Sharon Bulova (D), who also chairs the board's budget committee, is meeting with board members to discuss additions to the fiscal 2009 budget. The board has to contend with a $32 million budgetary shortfall.
“I'm not sure if we can fully fund the entire program,” Bulova said, but an alternative could be to “fund a smaller program, or we could also be looking at other state or county grants we could apply for to replace the federal money.”
A smaller program would not be as effective, said Diane Beatty, who founded the P'CASO program.
“It would be a shame to cut positions, since, at a minimum, you need two teams for surveillance and after eight hours, you need to rotate those teams to effectively operate,” Beatty said. “And correspondence on a computer [with a suspected predator] takes weeks or months to prepare.”
Beatty's original model for the award-winning program included 16 positions and it is already streamlined as it is, she said.
“Six is the bare minimum that the county should have in place,” Beatty said.
"The entire program should probably have 10 detectives on staff," said Lt. Scott Durham, P'CASO's project leader.
The program has reduced the number of sex offenders not complying with the terms of their release to 22 percent, whereas nearly 40 percent of sex offenders were noncompliant in 2004.
“Out of compliance” essentially means that sex offenders are not living where they say they are living. The Code of Virginia states that anyone convicted as a sex offender after July 1, 2006 can live no closer than 500 feet from a school with minors as students.
Without the P'CASO program, Northern Virginia would be monitored by 10 state troopers, with the whole of Fairfax County monitored by two troopers.
More on the P'CASO program can be found at www.childsafenet.org.