Deputies Knocking Sheriff’S Department Keeps Tabs On Ex-Convicts Around Edgecliff

Their homes look just like the others in the neighborhood.

Small. Unassuming. Some well-kept, others with cluttered yards and peeling paint.

Behind the front doors of these homes in the Edgecliff neighborhood live convicted drug dealers, burglars and sex offenders.

They may have moved to this neighborhood on the western edge of the Spokane Valley because the rent is low. They may have moved to Edgecliff because, at one time, this was the Valley’s no-man’s land, where crime was prevalent and sheriff’s deputies weren’t banging on their doors.

Or they may have set up home here because it was home before they left.

So long, home sweet home.

Last month, the Spokane County Sheriff’s Department began a program that keeps tabs on convicted criminals living in Edgecliff.

Deputies make monthly contact with registered sex offenders or others under state supervision to make sure they’re living where they say they are and doing what they say they’re doing.

“We’re saying, `Hey, if you want to live here that’s fine. No one cares. But you will be monitored by the Department of Corrections and the Sheriff’s Department,” said Detective Steve Barbieri.

Barbieri, a sheriff’s detective stationed in Edgecliff, came up with the idea after the area received a federal crime-fighting grant two years ago.

Since then, sheriff’s officials and SCOPE Edgecliff volunteers have begun a rigorous campaign to solve crimes and run those committing them out of the neighborhood.

Now they want to prevent former criminals from getting involved again in criminal behavior.

“What we’re trying to do here is crime prevention,” Barbieri said.

Deputies will contact parolees to make sure they’re not violating curfew orders, hanging out with people they shouldn’t be and that they’re living where they say they are. If not, deputies will report them to the state Department of Corrections. Corrections officers will follow up on those reports.

In the Edgecliff neighborhood - bordered by Havana Street on the west, University Road on the east, Sprague Avenue on the north and 57th Avenue on the south - there are 23 people under some type of state supervision. There also are an additional 26 registered level I sex offenders. Level I sex offenders are those least likely to re-offend and who have typically had treatment.

This area has one of the highest concentrations of low-risk sex offenders and those under state supervision in unincorporated Spokane County.

Many on the parole list have been convicted of drug crimes or are low-risk sex offenders.

Deputy Mark Smoldt hopes to see them all.

On a sunny afternoon, Smoldt drives slowly through the area with lists of names and addresses in his patrol car.

He checks the clipboard and reads the notes other deputies have made regarding their efforts to make face-to-face contact.

Today he’s looking for a 45-year-old level I sex offender. Deputies have repeatedly gone to the man’s apartment, but never found him there. The car out front is owned by him, but also registered to a woman.

Smoldt knocks on the apartment door. There’s no answer, and the blinds are drawn. He knocks again. He tries the neighbor’s door. No one is home there either.

“On to the next one,” he says, walking back to his patrol car, marking his list.

There are concerns about harassment. Some of these people committed crimes years ago, served their time and now want to live life without being reminded of the past.

“I haven’t been met with hostility,” Smoldt said. “I do have a right to contact them them to see that they’re complying with terms of their release.”

One 46-year-old man who was convicted of exposing himself 10 years ago said he’s happy to comply with the law. But he worries about what his neighbors might think if there’s a police car parked in front of his house daily.

“I did my crime. I don’t mind registering. I did my time, and I’m trying to keep things straight,” he said. He’s lived in the Edgecliff area for five years and said he plans on purchasing a home here.

Depending on the crime, officers can contact offenders anywhere from once a day to once a month, said Kent Gonzales, a community corrections officer with the Department of Corrections.

If someone has a curfew, he can be contacted daily to make sure he’s complying. Sex offenders typically can only be contacted once a month, he said.

The new Sheriff’s Department program takes some of the burden off the state community corrections officers, who in Spokane County typically carry between 70 and 90 cases at one time.

“I think it’s a viable asset to let us know what’s going on,” Gonzalez said. “I think it lets the offender know that everybody is watching.”

Including law-abiding neighbors.

Debra Kirkpatrick, who lives near Woodlawn and Fancher, fears sex offenders moving into the neighborhood. Her three children have grown up in Edgecliff and she wants to keep them safe.

Now that the program is in place, Kirkpatrick said she sleeps easier at night knowing that if any offenders move or re-offend there’s more chance the Sheriff’s Department will be on the case.

“It keeps a little tab on them. It doesn’t hurt,” she said.

Kirkpatrick’s husband is a mailman whose route takes him through Browne’s Addition, where sex offenders have lived. “He knows where the sex offenders live and he knows how quickly they can disappear.”

SCOPE Edgecliff President Jackie Ash agrees.

“We’re not going to bother them. We just want to let them know that we know they’re there,” she said. “We don’t want to not allow people to live here. Just that if they live here, they have to obey the law.”