MARION COUNTY — Marion County Sheriff’s Deputies spent Friday morning performing surprise compliance checks on several sex offenders on the east side of Indianapolis.
They checked on more than a dozen sex offenders that live in three homes all on North Olney St.
“We were able to determine six people said they were where they are at. There are two people we will probably have to obtain some warrants on,” said Marion County Sheriff Kerry Forestal.
Forestal noted that the location of the homes is problematic, all 3 are just blocks away from Brookside Park.
“If you live in the 800 block of North Olney, you’d walk by 14 sex offenders to get to the park. I don’t think that is a good idea,” said Forestal.
Deputies are required to check on serious violent predators every 90 days, but Forestal says they check on registered sex offenders every 30 days. They perform inspections by surprise.
Right now there are 1,815 Registered Sex Offenders in Marion County. 45% of them were sentenced in other counties or other states and have moved here.
Every sheriff’s deputy performs checks multiple times each year to keep up with the demand of having this many sex offenders in the county.
Forestal would like to see sex offenders stay in the location where they were sentenced, but right now that’s not a requirement.
Over 10% of Marion County sex offenders live at 18 locations; one of which has 39 offenders living in one spot.
“We don’t want the welcome mat to those people, we’ll be responsible to the ones who were sentenced in Marion County and we’ll check them. But other people need to stay in the county they were sentenced to,” said Forestal.
Several neighbors watched as deputies walked up to the homes to check on offenders.
Demitri Gladney lives just a few doors down from one of the homes where seven sex offenders reside.
Gladney has lived there for almost two decades and this was the first he learned of his neighbors’ backgrounds.
“Doesn’t really make me feel happy, I’ll say it that way, doesn’t make me feel happy at all. I will have to make sure that I am more mindful of my neighbors and what’s going on around me and especially mindful of the children in this neighborhood,” said Gladney.
Others who live nearby were aware of the sex offenders living on their street. Linda Suba says they don’t seem to be a problem.
“This group has been very good, they’ve never been any trouble with us. Where else are you going to put them?” she said.
One of the sex offenders deputies were looking for today was Robert Collins Jr. who is a sexually violent predator. Collins is wanted on two counts of failure to register which are level 5 felonies. He was originally convicted in Hancock County for child molestation and sexual battery involving an 11-year-old victim.
Call the Marion County Sheriff’s Office if you’ve seen Collins or know where he is.
To check if there are sex offenders living in your neighborhood you can visit Offender Watch or the Marion County Sheriff’s Office website.
