… Tier IV Sex Offender Registry – House File 163. This is a bill that I introduced during the 2017 session which I am continuing to work on. This bill addresses the problem of sex offenders that “time out” of the registry after a set number of years (usually 10 years) and then move to a new area of the state or move into Iowa from another state.
If a sex offender has timed out, law enforcement has no way of knowing this person is in their community. This bill establishes a new requirement for any person that has ever had to register as a sex offender in Iowa or any other jurisdiction to register with the county sheriff when they move into or around the state.
If someone has been offense free for 10+ years, there’s no reason for law enforcement to take any interest in them, regardless of their offense. If they do commit another offense, their record is already available in NCIC and Iowa’s state counterpart.
This is needless regulation and an attempt to further persecute those who were previously released from registry requirements, particularly if the proposed registration requires public disclosure (oddly a part of registration not addressed in the article).
This helps confirm what a coworker told me years ago: “IOWA stands for I Oughta Went Around.”
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This would (once again) seem to violate the Priveleges and Immunities Clause or the Equal Protection Clause. Granted, SCOTUS has ruled States can charge out of state people more for things like hunting licenses and schooling, but this one may not fit that ruling.
In other words, coming off the registry is not really coming off the registry, because they still want you to register? Makes sense…
So once someone completed their duty to register per the law will now have to register upon their completion to register? I guess this falls right in line with completing your incarceration sentence and then moving to civil commitment.
2 feel good pieces of legislation —– Bible education in public schools, and additional sex offender legislation.
Win Win
You just register once so anytime anyone can find you online. Uh huh. Did the same thing in Jewish Ghettos w/external bldg markings and ledgers.
Only in Iowa where DAs scare straight kids with a prosecution threat for self-portraits.
Must be a slow winter among corn & soybean fields and pig feed lots.
1. “…problem of sex offenders that “time out””. This is NOT a problem for anyone except legislators looking for votes.
2. “… law enforcement has no way of knowing this person is in their community”. Yes, as Dustin pointed out, LE has a database already to look up any ex-criminal. The “community” doesn’t need to know where ex-sex offenders live as the recidivism rate is lower than most, if not all, criminals.
3. “… registry requirements… do not constitute ex post facto punishment”. YES they do.
4. “… greater insight into who is living in our communities”. How hard is it to punch in someone’s name into a computer that already exists?
5. As far as the biblical literacy course, how about a “how registry laws can screw up your life forever course?”
Everyone email this **** at dean.fisher@legis.iowa.gov and oppose such bills. Maybe his 20 year old associate degree clerk will read the emails and learn how to keep himself and others free from rediculous laws.
These sex offender registry laws are becoming more ridiculous nowadays because of fear of crime being committed and suspicion of incompliance with registrants.
It almost sounded reasonable. Thirty days to register, no annual reporting, just when you move, no public notification or appear on website. ok, $25 fee when you do register, but only when you move. But not so reasonable when you read further about the presence restrictions still apply if your offense included a minor. A whole lot of restrictions then come into play. Not so reasonable after all. This so called tier IV registry is for life with no way to petion to get off. Dumb asses, the whole lot of them.
If anyone is interested, here is the text of the legislation. Good grief!
https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/publications/LGI/87/HF163.pdf
This proves that the only minority group you can safely attack now is the person who once committed a sex crime. If you are an angry politician, feeling scorned, or just want to attract attention in an election year, well, you are free to openly attack, accuse, deride, or shame someone who may have committed a sex offense, and the good news is, it doesn’t matter how long ago it happened or how minor. So enjoy the opportunity to revile them now, it may not last.
The text of the bill repeatedly makes reference to a registrants requirement to register having “expired” . Nowhere is being relieved of ones duty to register by a judge mentioned- in Iowa or any other jurisistiction.
So the author is purposely writing this bill ambiguously. I don’t think this bill will pass.