View city-by-city stats on local registered sex offenders

A man is behind bars after allegedly trying to lure a student in Desert Hot Springs into his car after school.

Desert Hot Springs police officers and Palm Springs Unified School District officials say this all started when a student at Painted Hills Middle School went to safety officers after allegedly being lured by 60-year-old Dickie Hibbitts.

I’m very proud,” Palm Springs Unified School District Security Manager Rudy Villareal said. “It’s good to see the students listen to some of the information that’s passed down, that’s harped quite a bit.”

Desert Hot Springs police officers say with the help of school officials they were able to arrest Hibbitts, who they found out is a registered sex offender.

School district officials say before the boy made the report, safety officers at Painted Hills took down the license plate information from Hibbitts’ car which pulled up his information as a registered sex offender, and helped in the arrest.

Now with Hibbitts behind bars, safety officials are getting the word out to families to say something if they see something.

“It’s a very controlling type of environment for these people,” Villareal said. “They know what they want and what they’re looking for.”

Police officers say they want to help get the word out so incidents don’t go unreported.

“A crime may occur, however, people don’t report it,” Desert Hot Springs police officer Cory Carranza said. “A lot of times we get calls under different circumstances, where people say this is the third or fourth time it’s happened, but this is the first time *they’ve called the police.”

Hibbitts has been charged with a count of annoying or molesting a child.

Some tips both Desert Hot Springs police officers and Palm Springs school security officers have for children and families include if you see something suspicious or are approached by a suspicious person, run away and report it to a school safety officer, or call 911.

Also, another tip they have is to have children always walk in pairs and never alone.

There are 2,978 registered sex offenders living in Riverside County, according to the list on Megan’s Law. The city with the most registered sex offenders in the Coachella Valley is Desert Hot Springs, with 108 (See full list below).

Does a child predator live nearby?

News Channel 3 and CBS Local 2 started to look into the statistics following Tuesday’s arrest of a registered sex offender in Desert Hot Springs. A child did the right thing by not getting in the man’s vehicle, and then wrote down the suspect’s license plate number and reported him to police.

Coachella Valley sex offenders (You may have to Search by city, or refresh the links due to time-out issues on Megan’s Law website):

Desert Hot Springs – 103
Indio – 78
Palm Springs – 60
Cathedral City – 48
Palm Desert – 32
Coachella – 24
La Quinta – 17
Rancho Mirage – 12
Thermal – 10
Mecca – 2
Indian Wells – 0