Offender registry updates Monday
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No comments [ Add Comment ]By JESSE FRUHWIRTH
and TIM GURRISTER
Standard-Examiner staff
DRAPER -- The public will have more information about individuals on Utah's Sex Offender Registry beginning Monday. However, not everybody is happy about the changes, in part because some of those required to register will not be sex offenders.
Kidnapping has been added to Utah's list of crimes that require registration. Parents convicted of kidnapping their biological or adopted children, however, are not required to register.
The 2008 Legislature, guided by bill sponsor Paul Ray, R-Clinton, approved the Sex Offender Notification and Registration bill.
Ray said the changes are taken directly from federal mandates contained within the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006.
"If they change the color of their car, they have to register that," he said.
"If the Web site says they have a red Ford and they paint it gray, we need to know that. I think these are common-sense issues."
Not everyone agrees.
Roy Cole, an Ogden public defender, was critical of the need for such sweeping changes to the registry.
"The Legislature does some weird things -- it's government as a reactionary body doing what it thinks will keep its constituency happy."
Cole is particularly unhappy about the Utah Sex Offender Registry adding offenders of other crimes to the list. Adding kidnapping, child kidnapping, aggravated kidnapping and unlawful detention to the list of "registerable" crimes, even if there's no sexual component, is a mistake, he said.
"The first person who challenges that is going to win. How do they qualify as sex crimes?
"The reality is, (they) rarely have anything to do with sex. ... It's a false media stereotype you see on TV that someone down at the Legislature has bought into."
Ray said individuals already convicted on kidnapping charges will not be required to register, so there will not be a huge boost in the number of entries added to the registry Monday.
Other states have expanded offender registries to include more than just sex crimes.
Proposals have included violent, domestic violence and drug offender registries. Montana, Oklahoma and Indiana have all implemented violent offender registries in recent years. Tennessee has a methamphetamine producer registry.
Utah's sex offender registry contains about 6,900 names. Half of those individuals are under active supervision of Adult Probation and Parole. More than 800 live in the Top of Utah.
Registrants are listed for 10 years beginning the day they are released from probation or parole.
Offenders will now need to provide their license plate numbers; the registry already lists the color, make and model year of their vehicles. Vehicle has also been redefined to include boats and planes.
Also, Utah professionals ranging from doctors to private investigators must obtain licenses from the state to do their work, and now, offenders on the registry must list those licenses on the registry.
In addition, any school where the offender is enrolled and any volunteer work done must also be listed.
Other changes to the registry Ray had planned for this year have yet to be implemented.
Ray said in June that he hoped to add sex offender categories, or ratings, that would easily distinguish the most dangerous sex offenders from those that pose less of a threat.
"We left that open," he said. "That's something Corrections has the ability to do. I think they are in the process of doing that. I don't think you'll see that immediately, but you will see it eventually. This is a two- or three-year overhaul."
During the 2008 session, Ray said Utah would not fully implement the Adam Walsh law. Failing to do so may cost the state about $200,000 in federal law enforcement grants, he said, but implementing the full bill would cost much more.
Other portions of the Adam Walsh act that have proven controversial in states that have implemented them -- such as requirements to list juvenile sex offenders and relisting individuals who had fulfilled their duties under older laws -- may also be implemented in Utah in coming years, said Department of Corrections spokeswoman Angie Welling.
"(Juvenile registration) will continue to be discussed," she said, "but not just that -- all aspects of Adam Walsh."
