For Immediate Release Contact: Carol Danko, 202-225-7896
Today, United States Senator Charles E. Schumer and Congressman Peter King announced legislation that will grant access to important federal criminal background information to the National Parents for Megan’s Law Center in Stony Brook. Access to the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) is necessary for Parents for Megan’s Law, Inc. to evaluate the veracity of tips received, proactively research noncompliant registrants and provide law enforcement with accurate information for follow-up action. The bill will direct Attorney General Eric Holder to provide access to information and resources for the creation of the National Sex Offender Registration Tips Program (SORT). The program will be created through the existing National Megan’s Law Helpline.
A national Sex Offender Registration Compliance survey conducted by Parents for Megan’s Law, Inc. in 2003 indicated that 24% of registered sex offenders were not complying with sex offender registration laws. Sex offender registry information provides parents and community members an opportunity to protect themselves, their children, and their communities from sexual victimization, but that information requires labor intensive follow-up intervention and proactive maintenance to be kept current. Granting access to the NCIC data will level the playing field between predators and parents, Schumer said.
“There is nothing more important than protecting our children and communities from dangerous predators who prey on our country’s most vulnerable,” Schumer said. “My bill will go a long way in ensuring that parents, communities, schools, and law enforcement have the necessary tools to protect themselves and their communities from sexual predators and that victims have the support they need to recover from crimes they have suffered.”
“It is too often that we hear about child predators in the news. We should be doing all we can to find these criminals and get keep them out of our neighborhoods and away from our children,” said King. “I applaud Parents for Megan’s Law for their dedication to this issue, and I will fight for the passage of this bill so that they may have the tools and funding they need to support victims and stop sexual abuse.”
The Helpline is run by Parents for Megan’s Law, Inc., a nonprofit corporation that educates and supports the community, law enforcement, criminal justice, and government agencies on issues related to sex offender registration, notification, responsible use of information, sexual abuse and abduction prevention, Internet Safety, and crime victim support. The SORT program and Helpline will provide up to date sexual abuse prevention information, deter vigilantism, reinforce responsible use of information and provide victims who need information with an infrastructure of enforcement and therapeutic support.
Laura A. Ahearn, Executive Director of Parents for Megan’s Law applauded Senator Schumer and Congressman King for their ongoing dedication to crime victims and commitment to preventing sexual assault. “Victims of sexual assault suffer life-long and devastating consequences, and, there are information, technology and resources available that can reduce this victimization. Parochial approaches to information access should not be an obstacle to collaborative initiatives with law enforcement and the community which will significantly enhance public safety. Access to NCIC will enable our SORT analysts to enhance law enforcement’s efforts in accomplishing our mutual goal of protecting the innocent and most vulnerable from victimization.
The Sex Offender Registration Tips Program (SORT) will reduce sexual victimization and support victims of violent crimes by providing up-to-date and accurate sex offender registry information to Federal, State, and local law enforcement entities through the National Megan’s Law Helpline and their website. This will enable the analysis and coordination of community tips relating to sex offenders who fail to register in the sex offender registry. It will also enable using existing Internet sex offender registries, public information, and the NCIC to compare and contrast information to identify high-risk registrants who are out of compliance, in violation of conditions of supervision, and identify the location of wanted registrants in order to ascertain the need for follow-up action by law enforcement. It will also provide crime victims support, information, and referrals and assist community members with up-to date sex offender registration, notification, and sexual abuse and abduction prevention and Internet Safety information.
NCIC access will provide Parents for Megan’s Law a critical tool needed to protect children and the most vulnerable from sexual victimization. Agency SORT analysts will have the capability to access the originating law enforcement agency and current supervisory agency which will be utilized as a focal point for gathering information and coordinating with other criminal justice agencies. NCIC access also provides SORT analysts with the capability to conduct immediate national criminal history searches on non-compliant (failing to register, violating supervision conditions) and absconded sex offenders to develop viable leads and submit complete offender case packages to law enforcement agencies to assist in the timely location and apprehension of offenders who pose a high-risk of re-offending.
The SORT program will serve as a powerful national tool supporting communities and crime victims while assisting and advancing the mission of Federal, state, and local law enforcement in combating sexual victimization. The SORT program and the National Megan’s Law Helpline are unique in that they provide up to date sexual abuse prevention information, deter vigilantism, reinforce responsible use of information and provide victims who come forth with needed information with an infrastructure of enforcement and therapeutic support. The SORT Program will maximize law enforcement’s already strained resources by screening anonymous tips promptly and effectively through the use of trained investigators with access to public, private and law enforcement databases.
The organization Parent’s for Megan’s Law Inc. is a nonprofit corporation that was established in 1998 and educates and supports the community, law enforcement, criminal justice, and government agencies on issues related to sex offender registration, notification, responsible use of information, sexual abuse and abduction prevention, Internet Safety, and crime victim support. The group established and operates the National Megan’s Law Helpline, a free confidential telephone helpline that provides information, support, and criminal justice referrals, nationally and internationally, on sex offender management issues.
Parents for Megan’s Law, Inc. is a certified rape crisis center and provides support and assistance to child and adult victims of sexual abuse and all victims of violent crime. Research suggests that sexual assault victims who receive counseling support are more likely to report their attack to the police and participate in the prosecution of the offender. The National Megan’s Law Helpline has generated over 70,000 requests for assistance, information, or follow-up contacts on sex offender management, crime victim support, and prevention education issues. Helpline requests utilize Parent’s for Megan’s Law, Inc. resources and often entail coordination with outside resources, follow-up calls, or actual referrals to law enforcement and other criminal justice agencies, state and local crime victims assistance agencies and organizations, social service and human service providers, and other service provider organizations.
The website of Parents for Megan’s Law, Inc., serves as a clearinghouse and national resource for information related to sex offender registration, notification, sexual abuse and abduction prevention, and crime victims’ support and referrals. The website is also utilized by the public to anonymously report on-line child pornography and child sex tourism and as a resource for Internet Safety education. Reports are forwarded to local law enforcement for appropriate follow-up. With limited resources, the National Megan’s Law Helpline has provided the public with a resource for confidentially reporting registered sex offenders failing to comply with registration requirements, supervision, or employment restrictions or who are in positions of trust where potential child victims can be accessed. Confidential tips are triaged, crime victim support is provided, and referrals are made to the appropriate criminal justice agency for follow-up action.
Because of anonymous tips to the Helpline, actions have been taken to mitigate potentially dangerous situations, such as, sending a registered sex offender back to prison after he was identified as residing in a registered child day care center where he could access potential child victims; preventing a convicted former middle school teacher required to register as a sex offender and give up his teacher’s license, from gaining employment as an in home children’s tutor for a reputable tutoring company where he could gain unsupervised access to potential child victims; having a registered sex offender who targeted a child, and subsequently was barred from using the Internet to develop online relationships, removed from an Internet Dating service where he attempted to develop a relationship with whom he believed was a single woman with children; sending a registered sex offender, who was on parole for a weapons charge and restricted from entering school grounds, back to prison for entering school grounds and drug possession; identifying and reporting a registered sex offender, convicted of sexually victimizing a 4-year-old boy while baby-sitting, who had absconded and failed to register; and identifying, locating and reporting registered sex offenders in violation of conditions of probation, parole, local employment or restriction laws.
The bill will authorize $1 million for grants for fiscal years 2010-2014.
