06-21-2006, 01:21 PM
http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll ... 20041/1015 (http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060621/OPINION/60620041/1015)
Editorial
Connect dots on offenders
Law enforcement needs right tools to monitor sex criminals
Originally posted on June 21, 2006
The authorities in Florida like to make a big deal about how tough they are on sex offenders, forcing them to register after they have done their prison time and limiting where they can live, work, even swim. Lee County is considering a separate storm shelter for sex offenders.
But in fact, offenders who wish to fly under the registration radar have a pretty easy time of it, because the Florida Department of Law Enforcement does not use a number of databases that could help find offenders, including those who have moved here from other states and have not registered. Actually, these people are not necessarily under the radar, it’s just that the radars aren’t being coordinated.
The News-Press reported Monday that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement does not use some potentially helpful databases —from employers, post offices, courts, motor vehicle departments or Social Security — to reconcile offenders’ addresses or to track down the missing among the 38,000 sex offenders on the Florida list, although it still manages to find a good chunk of them.
The Division of Motor Vehicles lets the FDLE know if an offender applies for a license and identifies himself as an offender. If the Department of Revenue uses all sorts of databases, from Social Security to utility payments, to track down deadbeat parents, why can’t the FDLE do as much to find unregistered sex offenders?
TOO EASY TO DUCK
The value of sex offender registries in preventing sex crimes is unproven. The registries are, for one thing, too big, too little focused on the really dangerous people. And if these people are still so dangerous, why are they released at all?
But the registries surely can’t do much good if they rely on the offenders themselves to register and make it easy to avoid detection if they don’t. It stands to reason that at least some of the people ducking the system are among those most likely to offend again.
The chilling case of Edward Joseph Ziesmer is right on point.
Ziesmer had been missing for three years from the sex offender registration list in Wisconsin when, according to authorities here, he dragged a 4-year-old Bonita Springs girl into the woods in January and sexually assaulted her. He was supposed to tell authorities in Wisconsin that he was moving, and report to Florida authorities when he got here. He did neither, but he had a Florida ID card which he got in April 2003, and he was collecting Social Security checks here.
MAKE IT WORK
This is the kind of predator who should be tracked carefully across the country. The FDLE plans to ask the Legislature for money to use the FBI and Justice Department databases to trace interstate sex offenders. And a state analysis has already recommended automating computers to match, for example, driver’s license applications with the sex offender tracking system — again, more money is needed, they say.
Come on. We’re still denying the enforcement agencies these basic resources at the same time we’re passing more and more laws restricting offenders? Or perhaps the same thing could be accomplished with existing national and state databases sooner and less expensively.
It’s a classic political game: Pass harsh criminal laws that please the voter, then quietly neglect the money and manpower to enforce the law effectively.
The governor and the Legislature need to be sure the state is making the best use of existing databases to track at least the most serious released sex offenders.
Editorial
Connect dots on offenders
Law enforcement needs right tools to monitor sex criminals
Originally posted on June 21, 2006
The authorities in Florida like to make a big deal about how tough they are on sex offenders, forcing them to register after they have done their prison time and limiting where they can live, work, even swim. Lee County is considering a separate storm shelter for sex offenders.
But in fact, offenders who wish to fly under the registration radar have a pretty easy time of it, because the Florida Department of Law Enforcement does not use a number of databases that could help find offenders, including those who have moved here from other states and have not registered. Actually, these people are not necessarily under the radar, it’s just that the radars aren’t being coordinated.
The News-Press reported Monday that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement does not use some potentially helpful databases —from employers, post offices, courts, motor vehicle departments or Social Security — to reconcile offenders’ addresses or to track down the missing among the 38,000 sex offenders on the Florida list, although it still manages to find a good chunk of them.
The Division of Motor Vehicles lets the FDLE know if an offender applies for a license and identifies himself as an offender. If the Department of Revenue uses all sorts of databases, from Social Security to utility payments, to track down deadbeat parents, why can’t the FDLE do as much to find unregistered sex offenders?
TOO EASY TO DUCK
The value of sex offender registries in preventing sex crimes is unproven. The registries are, for one thing, too big, too little focused on the really dangerous people. And if these people are still so dangerous, why are they released at all?
But the registries surely can’t do much good if they rely on the offenders themselves to register and make it easy to avoid detection if they don’t. It stands to reason that at least some of the people ducking the system are among those most likely to offend again.
The chilling case of Edward Joseph Ziesmer is right on point.
Ziesmer had been missing for three years from the sex offender registration list in Wisconsin when, according to authorities here, he dragged a 4-year-old Bonita Springs girl into the woods in January and sexually assaulted her. He was supposed to tell authorities in Wisconsin that he was moving, and report to Florida authorities when he got here. He did neither, but he had a Florida ID card which he got in April 2003, and he was collecting Social Security checks here.
MAKE IT WORK
This is the kind of predator who should be tracked carefully across the country. The FDLE plans to ask the Legislature for money to use the FBI and Justice Department databases to trace interstate sex offenders. And a state analysis has already recommended automating computers to match, for example, driver’s license applications with the sex offender tracking system — again, more money is needed, they say.
Come on. We’re still denying the enforcement agencies these basic resources at the same time we’re passing more and more laws restricting offenders? Or perhaps the same thing could be accomplished with existing national and state databases sooner and less expensively.
It’s a classic political game: Pass harsh criminal laws that please the voter, then quietly neglect the money and manpower to enforce the law effectively.
The governor and the Legislature need to be sure the state is making the best use of existing databases to track at least the most serious released sex offenders.