24 sex offenders rearrested

Kootenai County authorities arrested 24 sex offenders this month after a countywide sweep revealed 10 percent of the 295 registered offenders in the county were breaking the law.

The Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department has a request pending with the prosecutor’s office for arrest warrants for eight more noncompliant sex offenders, sheriff’s Capt. Ben Wolfinger said Wednesday.

“This is the first time we’ve gone out and just done a sweep of everybody,” Wolfinger said. “Obviously, we’ve shown there’s a lack of compliance.”

The Sheriff’s Department sent a pair of deputies door to door, visiting the addresses of every sex offender on the county’s registry.

The two dozen offenders arrested so far are charged with failing to notify authorities of a change of address.

Idaho law doesn’t require checks like the door-to-door task force effort by Kootenai County over the past 2 1/2 weeks, Wolfinger said. The law only requires the Sheriff’s Department to visit the county’s violent sexual predators, the highest classification of offenders, every six months.

Wolfinger said there are only three violent predators registered in the county and all three are in compliance with the law.

The results of the sweep were surprising, Wolfinger said.

The county will begin conducting random sweeps in the future to ensure offenders comply with the law, he said.