Click to view image: 'Placebo'

So I guess this vigilante news organization expects the police to be psychic now, and know where everyone is 24/7/365? So the vigilante media, who are apparently hard up for a story, take it upon themselves to stalk and harass people. Just goes to show you, no matter how many draconian, unconstitutional, placebo laws you pass, it will not stop someone who is intent on committing another crime, or vanishing! But, the sheeple will believe anything!

------------------------------------------------------------

Sexual predators who are supposed to be monitored by the state, but sometimes they're roaming your neighborhood, and you have no idea. And neither do police.

It happened earlier this month in Kern County and 17News discovered it's not the first time a paroled sex offender escapes surveillance and the public is not informed.

All over Kern County state agents stash paroled sex offenders in motels, apartment buildings, and trailer parks. An employee at a motel on Union Avenue says sex offenders no longer live at his motel, but according to the Megan's Law website there are 17 registered sex offenders living at the Bakersfield Lodge.

We found seven more living at a trailer park down the street and one of the managers on site refused to answer our questions. “No I can’t tell you because I am not answering questions,” the woman said.

Its taxpayer money that houses paroled sex offenders but the state department of corrections won't tell us where paroled sex offenders live in Kern County. So we filed a Freedom of Information request to get that information for you, the state has 10 days to respond but already said it doubts it will turn that over to us.

But what if one of these sex offenders skips out on their parole and goes missing again?

“Would you want to know?” 17’s Alex Valle asked. “Of course,” resident Alex Lopez replied.

“So we could be alert, stay home, and have our kids safe,” resident Maria Magallon said.

“You just need to know to be on the safe side. You never know if they are dangerous,” resident Linda Romo said.

Well six weeks ago a man named _____, who police call a violent sexual predator, cut off his GPS tracking device, threw it on the freeway, and fled. His parole agents in Bakersfield never warned the public or informed local law enforcement that_____ was on the run. Two weeks later a Bakersfield police detective did a random check at _____’s group home and discovered... he was gone.

“I was appalled. I was appalled,” Caroline Aguirre said.

She is a retired parole agent. Aguirre worked for the Department of Corrections for about 20 years and contacted 17News after our story on_____ aired. Aguirre says parole agents rarely communicate with local law enforcement.

“They are not following the rules and the guidelines. And I think they are afraid that if they are confronted by the community and when the community and law enforcement gets wind of what they are doing and that they are not following the letter and the spirit of the law… Administrators will not have their positions,” Aguirre said.

And Aguirre says this is not the first time it’s happened. Last year a high risk sex offender on parole for rape went missing and she says his parole agents did not cooperate with officers from the Los Angeles Police Department. She says three weeks later the sex offender broke into a home and raped another woman.

“The department is no longer concerned with welfare and safety of the community, I am not sure what it’s concerned with,” the retired parole agent added.

As for the parole office in Bakersfield, when _____ disappeared District Administrator Rodney Armstrong sat down for an interview and showed us how the GPS system works but when we went back to find out why they didn't notify the public about_____'s disappearance they refused to answer our questions.

Over the phone on Thursday a spokesperson from Sacramento told me the Department of Corrections issued a warrant for _____ when he fled and fed the information on an electronic system available to all law enforcement agencies. But local law enforcement officials say they would have only seen that warrant if they ran a search for_____'s name. In other words, they would have had known _____ was missing- but they were never told.

“Informing the public could definitely impede the Apprehension Team. If the public gets notification or if something goes out on a scanner and the individual hears that law enforcement is closing in on him or he thinks that, he is could run further or he could take action that might put public safety at risk. There are a lot of reasons why public notification is not always in the best of apprehending an individual who is a PAL,” spokesperson Gordon Hinkle said.

Two days after Bakersfield police notified the public, officers found _____'s RV in Bakersfield and four days later he was arrested in Las Vegas.