SAN DIEGO (KGTV) -- There were signs, chalk and fliers nearly everywhere on Frondoso Drive in Rancho Bernardo Thursday as many residents expressed their feelings on a sexually violent predator possibly moving into their neighborhood.
"We're of a high emotion, and we're still of high emotion,” Jeff Grace, a community organizer, said.
That emotion is fueling community members like Grace’s mission to get as many public comments as possible sent to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department to be presented at the placement hearing for Douglas Badger on October 29.
"Today is opening day. Today's the first day of the public comment section,” Grace said. "We're hoping to generate 3,000-5,000 emails to the sheriff's department which will ultimately go in front of the judge."
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Some of those emails came from Paul and Wendy Hunter.
"We've sent in our emails. We've had our kids write in also. And we're going to go and tell the rest of the neighborhood about it. Because it's a big deal,” Wendy Hunter said.
Aside from the signs draping and hanging from homes, community organizers are hoping to do a lot of grassroots efforts to get people to fill in their public comments.
"It's the stuff we are doing behind the scenes. We've got a Facebook page that they've created. We've got an Instagram channel that we've created. We have a text message group that we’ve created with a lot of concerned neighbors that are in here,” Chad Heath, a concerned neighbor, said.
"Saturday morning, there's going to be another event led by Carl DeMio's team to canvass Oaks North, the Westwood community, Poway, shopping centers,” Grace said.
The sheriff’s department told ABC 10News that on day one, the Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement (SAFE) task force’s inbox received about 500 emails of public comment.
"Great out-of-the-box performance,” Grace said.
But it's only day one.
"Frankly, they just don't know about it. And they might be a little complacent. But we are nudging them to not be complacent,” Heath said.
"Folks will say this never happen in RB. And I'm here to caution you, it's so easy for it to happen in RB,” Grace said.
The mail and call-in public comment period ends on October 14.
But, concerned citizens can attend the public hearing on October 29 to voice their opinions.
