Warning sex offenders; 'Offendar' may find you

Cleveland Plain Dealer, Reginald Fields

State Sen. Tim Grendell of Chester Township, a vocal supporter of various measures aimed at getting tougher on crime, says he is excited about a Geauga County company's proposal "to take real-time monitoring of sex offenders to a new level."

He has invited the company to make a presentation Wednesday to a Senate subcommittee on a device it is developing and seeking to patent called "Offendar," short for offender radar. Offendar LLC is marketing it as a "personal threat detection system featuring a key-fob sized electronic device." The device would give the person carrying it "a vibrating, auditory or visual alarm when a sex offender or other person wearing a court-ordered electronic ankle bracelet is in the immediate vicinity."

Why is the company proposing it? "The public wants more than after-the-fact tracking of sex offenders. Many people want to know when a threat is in the vicinity so they can take steps to protect themselves and their children before something happens," according to the company's presentation.

The idea is sure to be provocative, especially among those who think efforts targeting sex offenders have gone too far.

Grendell seems to have no reservations about the company's proposal. "In seeing their idea and understanding how it can enhance what Ohio is already doing, I was very impressed," he said in a memo Monday to fellow lawmakers and the media. [Ed: So stupid and so bizarre it needs no further comment. An appeal to sheer stupidity!]

Comment from Reader:
Why don't we put a monitoring device on lawmakers so we know when they are in the area. They seem to feel that the State of Ohio needs to monitor and know all, so I think that should include monitoring them as well. Course, then everyone would know their dirty laundry too and the game is that they only get to know others dirty laundry...