More Details on Sex Felons May Be Posted
Riverside County legislators and law enforcement officials, contending that residents need better access to information about convicted sex offenders, are pushing for an Internet site that would not only name the offenders, but display photographs, addresses, convictions and criminal tactics.
"This will give our parents a lot of information and it allows our children to be safer," state Sen. Jim Battin (R-La Quinta) said. "Riverside County is known as tough and progressive when it comes to public safety. This should be our next and necessary step."
Jim Venable, a Riverside County supervisor, said Monday that he will ask his colleagues to let the Riverside County Sheriff's Department post the information on its website, as law enforcement agencies in San Jose and San Mateo County have done.
"The data is already in our stations, so I would think we can [post it on the Internet] within 60 days of approval," Riverside County Sheriff Bob Doyle said.
The department's website currently shows the general location of sex offenders. Residents can access detailed information only by going to sheriff's stations.
"This current system is not as convenient as sitting inside your own home, being able to check out who's living around you," Doyle said.
County officials point to the San Jose Police Department's sex offender website as a model.
But the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups have expressed concerns that detailed postings violate the civil rights of people who have served their time and that they could provoke vigilante actions or force the offenders into hiding.
"These websites give the public a false sense of security, in which they think they know who to look out for, and that the only bad man is the one down the street," said Liz Schroeder, an ACLU associate director in Los Angeles.
"I have yet to see any empirical evidence that this makes the public safer," said Paul Gerowitz, executive director of California Attorneys for Criminal Justice.
"The most dangerous predators have received long sentences," he said. "What you have are people who've completed their sentence, trying to move on. But this [public information] drives a wedge between them and wanting to be a productive part of society."
In 1996, President Clinton signed Megan's Law, which permitted the release of sex offender information. The law was named for 7-year-old Megan Kanka, who was raped and killed in 1995 in New Jersey by a convicted child molester who lived across the street from her.
