The law enforcement agencies in Lee County are using a $110,500 grant to make the 170 sex offenders in Lee County easier to track.
The Division received the grant in September, provided by the office of Community Oriented Policing Service (COPS), a program that helps fund new policing strategies.
The funds will be distributed among the Auburn Police Division, Opelika Police Department and Lee County Sheriff's Department between Sept. 1, 2011 and Aug. 31, 2012.
Capt. Tommy Carswell of the Auburn Police Division said $89,600 will go toward sex offender registration regulation enforcement and the remainder will go to software upgrades, training and covert computer operations.
The U.S. Attorney and U.S. Marshal Service for the Middle District of Alabama nominated the Auburn Police Division for the grant.
"I think the good work they were doing in this area was one of the reasons that prompted us to nominate them for the grant," said Thomas Anderson, acting first assistant U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Alabama.
The main focus of the grant is to pay off-duty officers for overtime.
Officers will be working overtime verifying the addresses provided by the sex offenders are their correct locations.
The officers will also check to make sure the location is at least 2,000 feet from a school or day care facility.
"Our hope is to ensure the communities that they are safe, because we're out there watching these people and to make sure that the offenders remain crime free because they know that we're watching and compelling them to do so," Carswell said.
The grant will also provide funds to assist police in locating, incarcerating and prosecuting sexual offenders found on the Internet, said Tommy Dawson, Auburn Police Chief.
Dawson said it is important to educate children about the presence of sexual predators on the Internet.
"Don't give all your information to people on Facebook," Dawson said. "Don't put on there when you're going to be in town, when you going to be out late, things of that nature.
"You always got to be careful. You could be talking to a sexual predator."
Keep in mind, Dawson said, that some sexual predators prey on young adults as well as young children.
"You have to think 'well, who are sex offenders?'" said Capt. James Majors of the Lee County Sheriff's office. "Some of them are your low-life dirt bags, but some of them are school teachers. Some of them are police officers. They're from all walks of life."
There are currently 170 sex offenders registered in Lee County, but the number changes everyday, Majors said, because every day, someone gets arrested or bonded out.
For more information on sex offenders in Lee County, go to the Lee County Sheriff's office website at www.leecountysheriff.org.
"Those are the ones that we know about, but just because there's not any on the website, that are registered in your area, doesn't mean you don't have to be safe and careful because there's some out there that we don't know about, some that haven't been caught yet," Majors said.
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