WARWICK — Responding to public concern about a convicted sex offender living barely a half-mile from three city schools, the police will hold a meeting Monday to discuss common-sense practices.

“We want people to be informed, not alarmed,” Capt Sean T. Collins, head of community policing, said this week. The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. in the community room of the police station.

According to community notifications that the police sent out in accordance with state law, a sex offender ranked as Level 3 by the state lives in the Craig Street area, which is about a half-mile from Toll Gate High School, Winman Junior High School and the former Drum Rock Elementary School, which now serves as an early child development center run by the School Department.

“A lot of people have expressed concern about the proximity of this individual to the schools, so we will have some experts there to talk to them about the subject,” Collins said.

The city’s career and technical school is also on the Toll Gate campus and there are daycare centers and playgrounds in the area.

Referencing a similar meeting that the police held in June at the Lippitt Elementary School, Collins said that tonight’s session will cover much of the same ground — teaching the public about the ranking system for sex offenders, how the notification process works and common-sense practices to keep children of all ages safe.

Collins said that the police and representatives of the parole board and other law enforcement agencies will be on hand to answer questions.

Speaking to parents at the Lippitt School in June, representatives of the parole board said that geographic proximity is not always as great a threat as it might first seem, because family ties or friendships are usually what link most sex offenders to their victims.

Also at that meeting, Warwick community police officer Stephen Lombardi said that notification of paroled offenders who have already served time is just one tool in protecting children and should not be a substitute for educating youngsters and keeping track of their whereabouts.

“I think the thing that scares me the most … is the ones out there that we haven’t arrested yet,” he said at the time.

According to Collins, the three-tiered ranking system that assigns a level to convicted sex offenders upon their release is based on the determination of how likely they are to repeat an offense.

A Level 1 offender is considered a low risk, Level 2 a modest risk and Level 3 the highest risk for recidivism.

School Committee Chairman Christopher E. Friel and Toll Gate Principal Stephen Chrabaszcz yesterday praised the police for responding to parents’ concerns.

Chrabaszcz said that the school has handouts with pictures of the offender if parents want one, or they can visit the Warwick Police Department’s Web site, which has photos and basic biographical information of Level 3 offenders currently registered in the city.

The Web site is www.warwickpd.org and viewers can then click on link for sex offenders. Information is also available on the state site: www.paroleboard.ri.gov.

bpoliche@projo.com

(Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that the meeting would be tonight.)