SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – A California senator who believes the state’s sex offender registry is broken says sex offenders may no longer have to register for life.
The bill, SB 384 would take lower-level sex offenders off the registry. Right now, four states including California, make all sex offenders register for life. And today, the registry tops 100,000 people in California. Some law enforcement officials say it’s working against them.
“They’re on the list and can’t get off,” said Gretchen Kocinsky, whose friend was arrested at a young age for a non-serious sex crime. “They are now married with children and can’t go volunteer at their kids’ school,” she said added.
Wow, what a poor article in terms of the information it presents and tries to sell.
“McCartt says law enforcement used to rely on the registry as a tool to solve sex crimes. He says only keeping dangerous sex offenders on the registry would be doing law enforcement a favor. ‘If something happens to a kid, you go straight to that list, you can figure out who the suspect is,’ he said.”
No, the registry doesn’t really help solve sex crimes as over 90% of offenses are first-time caught. Presenting it as if it does is very disingenuous, especially for a DA who absolutely knows the stats. And the current bill doesn’t exactly reduce the number or registrants. In fact, it reduces it by exactly zero as really no more people can get off than could before through the CoR. And the fact that it doesn’t automatically drop people and still requires a petition to the court (making it more or less another form of CoR), you’re not going to get anyone off anytime soon all while spending a ton of cash shuffling a deck of cards without dealing.
“Rapists, repeat offenders and criminals who use force on children would still be required to register for life. The bill would go before the Assembly later this week.”
O’rly? Is that why all of 311 was moved to tier 3 along with several other codes?
It’s awesome journalism like this that spreads misinformation and causes the people to rally more and more against the media.
‘If something happens to a kid, you go straight to that list, you can figure out who the suspect is,’ he said.”
The California Sex Offender Management Board knows better and will continue to argue the facts and science. If it is dissolved, then is the time to really worry about progress.
Hahaha! Hahaha! Oh, wait. He’s serious.
This is exactly what makes the LEO’s collective nationwide ignorance so dangerous – they actually believe the BS that they’re trained with – which I suspect is the nonsensical, fear mongering soundbites the NCMEC constantly spews: “all it takes is a second.. it could happen to your child, too.”
Not to mention how many actually use it. Compare the statistics from the mid 90’s when people were charged to call a 900 number. It wasn’t that important. Who called or requested information is also fascinating.
California Sex Offender Information
http://ag.ca.gov/megan/pdf/ca_sexoff.pdf
This is very interesting.