Butler County Sheriff's Office receives national award

The Butler County Sheriff's Office was recognized as the most Improved Community Notification Law Enforcement Agency in the nation from July 2011 through July 2012.

The award, which was accepted by Deputy Aaron Waldorf on behalf of the Butler County Sheriff's Office, was presented at the Annual Sex Offender Registry Innovations Conference held last week in New Orleans.

One component of the offender registry is the community notification side, which is to inform the public of where a registered offender is living, working, and volunteering in their area.

The award recognizes the Butler County Sheriff's office as the agency with the most improvement in percentage of households enrolled in the registered offender email notification system nationwide. The criteria for the award was communities ranging in population from Butler County with the most success in enrolling citizens for automatic alerts when these offenders move within proximity of an address a citizen is concerned about.

The conference brings together law enforcement from around the country with the purpose of learning about national "Best Practices" of registered offender monitoring and notification in an effort to accomplish the mission of "no registered offender left unaccounted for." The conference was coordinated by Watch Systems, the provider of OffenderWatch® which is a registered offender management and community notification tool used by more than 4,500 agencies nationwide.

"The Butler County Sheriff's Office Registered Offender Unit was able to make this happen by involving the people we strive to protect our children," said Sheriff Kelly Herzet. "We went to the schools in Butler County and promoted the e-mail notifications. This was done by awarding the class that was the first to return all of the email address notifications."

The award these children won was a lunch date with Herzet and deputies from the Sheriff's Office. The children were also allowed a tour of the Butler County Crime Scene Truck. They also attended many school Friday Night Football Games asking people to sign up for the email notifications and to be aware of where registered offenders are located in their community.