New database tracks sex offenders

Deepa Bharath

Local authorities believe that the passage of an Assembly bill this

week, which would make the Megan’s Law sex offender database

available over the Internet, will greatly benefit the community.

The bill, approved 72-2, would post online information about more

than 83,000 sexual offenders including their photographs, offenses

and, for the first time, their home addresses. The bill still has to

be approved by the Senate.

Through this website, to be operated by the California Department

of Justice, the public could get information about where sex

offenders live, work, volunteer or study and even details about what

cars they drive. However, obtaining anything more than the basic

information on the website would call for a judge’s order.

Sex offenders who are not considered high-risk could petition a

judge to have their addresses and other information removed from the

database. High-risk offenders are those who have committed at least

one serious sexual offense, such as rape or child molestation, and

are considered to be likely to commit more such offenses.

Without accessibility to the website, Californians can only access

limited data about sex offenders either by personally visiting local

police departments or making a $10 phone call to the Department of

Justice’s 900 number.

Every state has adopted some version of Megan’s Law, named after

Megan Kanka, a New Jersey girl raped and killed by a child molester

on parole who lived in her neighborhood. Under California’s law,

cities receive monthly updated lists of registered sex offenders from

the state Department of Justice.

Craig Brown, who runs Children Alert, a company based in West

Newport that provides free e-mail notifications and information to

customers about sex offenders in their neighborhoods, said he is

happy about the passage of the bill.

“It’s about time California caught up with other states and

putting the database on the Internet,” he said. “This state has been

a safe haven for sex offenders because this information was not

easily available to the public. Now, it’ll be different.”

Putting the database online would make it more convenient for the

public as well as police departments, Brown said. His company will

also try to work with the Department of Justice to continue to

provide e-mail alerts to customers.

“We do it for free anyway,” he said. “It’s a service we’d like to

continue.”

The Attorney General is still looking at what the state assembly

approved, said Hallye Jordan, a spokeswoman for the Attorney

General’s office in Sacramento.

“The Assembly made some last-minute changes to the bill and we’re

still analyzing those changes,” she said. “It also needs senate

approval.”

The bill is expected to meet with opposition from Senate

Democrats.

The Costa Mesa Police Department will still have the database open

to the public, said Lt. John FitzPatrick.

“Because there are people who don’t have Internet access,” he

said.

The change would probably reduce the number of people coming in to

look at the database, FitzPatrick said.

“But we’re fortunate in this city that we don’t have a huge number

of people coming in anyway to look at it,” he said. “Putting it

online would mean far fewer people coming in.”