Bixby Police Notify Residents

Officer.com reported The Bixby Police Department is the first in Oklahoma to use a telephone service that can alert a thousand residents a minute to sexual offenders moving into their neighborhood.

The program made its debut this month when police alerted residents within a half mile of the new addresses of two sexual offenders, police Lt. Paul Tryon said.

Bixby police are using a free service provided by the Florida-based nonprofit organization A Child Is Missing. A recorded message from the police department says: ''We have an important message for you. We want you to be aware that there is a sexual predator living in your neighborhood.''

The message then gives the offender's name, address, age, race, height, weight, gender, eye color and hair color. The recording also indicates the person is not wanted and that the information shouldn't be used to harass anyone, vandalize property or commit any crimes.

Tryon said the department goal is to notify neighbors within 10 days of the offender's move.

''If they feel they have a right to know, well, that's good,'' said Agustus Christenson, 26, a convicted sex offender who moved in with his family about two months ago. ''It also creates an uneasiness with me and to an extent it does anger me. I can see their side of it, needing to have a desire to protect their child.

''My side of it, well, it's like, I don't have the bubonic plague.''

Christenson served prison time for first-degree rape and indecent proposal to minor children, records show. Records also show he had sex with a 13-year-old girl five or six times and made the proposals to boys ages 6, 10 and 11.

He said he has a job working in the kitchen of a Tulsa restaurant. He's also in counseling.

Calls in Bixby also have been made to neighbors of Bassil Abdi, 51, who was convicted of sexual battery of a person over 16 in 2001.

''We weighed the public safety issues with issues that the offender might be targeted,'' Tryon said. ''If the offender is harassed or targeted then we will take steps to protect the offender.

Tina Izadi, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma, said although the ACLU is not opposed to providing information about dangerous sex offenders, she thinks the real solution is to dedicate adequate resources to treating offenders and educating the public.

''Everyone cares about keeping children safe,'' Izadi said. ''But alarmist notification messages, for example referring to offenders as 'sexual predators,' are not the answer because they are ineffective.''

Sixteen states are using the service to alert residents of neighbors with sexual records, said Sherry Friedlander, founder and chairman of A Child Is Missing. She hopes to expand the service, which federal and private funds pay for, to other Oklahoma cities. Some already use the company to locate missing children.