VIGO CO. – The Vigo County Council approved an ordinance establishing fees for sex offenders.
The ordinance will set a $50 annual fee for sex or violent offender registration and a $5 for each time a sex or violent offender registers an address change.
Vigo County John Sheriff Plasse approached the County Commissioners with this idea last year before COVID-19 hit.
Sheriff Plasse told the commissioners that nearly every county in Indiana has a fee associated with sex offender registration. He says because Vigo County didn’t have a fee offenders were registering in Vigo County to avoid the fee, driving the number of registered sex offenders in the county up by 200. The goal was not to get money but to assist in compliance for the ones that were doing it for free when living in surrounding counties
The sheriff says 90 percent of the money collected will stay in Vigo County while 10 percent will go to the state. The fees will be used to drive compensation and recording information in tracking registered offenders.
