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July 14, 2005
Idaho May Join National Sex Offender Registry
The Groene family's ordeal highlights one of several high-profile criminal cases across the country this year involving a sex offender.
In many of the places where a crime was committed, the sex offender was registered in a different state, and that's led the federal government to take action.
Suspected murderer Joseph Duncan is a convicted sex offender in two other states, and his actions against the Groene family here in Idaho has only strengthened the push for a public national registry of sex offenders.
On May 20, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced the Dept. of Justice would provide the resources to launch a centralized web site within 60 days that would contain a database of information on registered sex offenders from individual state web sites.
"The initiative will provide parents and other concerned citizens with immediate access to sex offender information beyond their streets or states-- all from a single search," said Justice Dept. Spokesperson Pete Pierce.
The goal is to get at least 20 states to be volunteer participants, and Idaho may be part of that inaugural group.
"The governor did receive the invitation and he's very interested in the notion of that, and the state is looking into whether it's feasible and whether technology is compatible," said Mike Journee, press secretary for Gov. Dirk Kempthorne.
While the Justice Department is aiming to launch the site by next week, Idaho State Police Bureau of Criminal Identification Manager Dawn Peck -- who oversees the state's public registered sex offender web site-- says they're testing the waters.
"We're working on the technical issues like how to transport data to the (Justice Department's database)," Peck said. "I think by next week we'll know how we're going to do that."
Peck says the key to determining which offenders are at high-risk of re-offending, is to look on the web registry at what charge they were convicted of. She also says the list of charges will usually determine whether the crime was committed against a child.
Posted by Nealus at July 14, 2005 04:18 PM
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