Fugitive Safehouses in Kootenai County?

In Thursday, December 14, 2006, newspaper articles, both The Spokesman-Review (headline: 24 sex offenders rearrested) and the Coeur d'Alene Press (headline: Arrests made during sweep) reported that during the past two weeks Kootenai County law enforcement officers had arrested 24 registered sex offenders for failing to properly notify the county of their residence addresses.

Commenting in the Press article, a sheriff's lieutenant said, "We worry about the guys we don't know about. We need people to pay attention to where their kids are going and who they're going there with."

Exactly! So Whitecaps wonders why neither newspaper listed the street address where each of the alleged offenders was living? Why not disclose these addresses since the occupancy was illegal?

Since May 2004 some Coeur d'Alene residents have been fighting the Mayor and City Council here in the "City of Expedience" to get enforcement of the City's existing zoning ordinances against illegally operated rooming houses. Illegally operated rooming houses are prime candidates to become fugitive safehouses. Since the houses are operating illegally, they are not inspected by the City to see if they conform to commercial occupancy life safety codes. The City's allowing the illegal rooming houses to operate endangers legal and illegal residents, neighbors, and public safety responders who may be summoned there. Registered sex offenders and other persons just released from custody need safe, legally operated residences, not fugitive safehouses.