By NYC Bar Committee | April 3, 2020
Dear Governor Cuomo:
The New York City Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Operations Committee and the Sex Offender Registration Act Working Group write this letter to urge the temporary suspension of in-person reporting requirements for people on the sex offender registry in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. By continuing to require in-person reporting for the 8,050 New York City residents on the registry, all of whom have in-person reporting requirements at the same office in lower Manhattan, the health and safety of registrants, court personnel, police officers and the public are being put at risk unnecessarily. Instead, the City Bar urges you to follow the precedent set by the Los Angeles Police Department, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, the states of Pennsylvania, Oregon, and Hawaii, and numerous other counties across the country, and allow registrants to satisfy their registration and verification requirements by reporting to the Sex Offender Monitoring Unit (“SOMU”) by telephonic or electronic means.