Vt. asked to pull its online registry of sex offenders
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By Darren M. Allen Vermont Press Bureau - Published: April 18, 2006
MONTPELIER — Vermont should dismantle its online sex offender registry after two men listed on the Maine registry were fatally shot this weekend, the American Civil Liberties Union said Monday.
"This is a stark reminder that there's no evidence that online sex offender registries increase public safety," said Allen Gilbert, executive director of the Vermont office of the ACLU. "In fact, they might just do the opposite."
Maine's public safety officials pulled their state's sex offender site off the Internet after the shooting deaths of listed convicts Joseph L. Gray, 57, of Milo, Maine, and William Elliott, 24, of Corinth, Maine.
The man suspected in the killings, Stephen Marshall of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, killed himself Sunday aboard a Vermont Transit bus outside South Station in Boston, police said.
According to the Associated Press, Maine officials have not made a conclusive link between the Web site — the Maine government's most popular — and the shootings.
"We don't have a link, we don't have a connection, and we have really more questions than we have answers as to what sparked this violence," Stephen McClausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety, told the Associated Press.
Gilbert's call for Vermont to take its own list off the Internet comes just days after the Vermont Senate voted to increase the types of convictions that would trigger inclusion on the list. He suggested that the shootings in Maine should give pause to lawmakers and proponents of the list.
"They should not be making any changes to the online registry unless they can determine that, indeed, the registry increases public safety," Gilbert said. "We think they never should have created it. They should just pull it immediately."
That is not going to happen, according to Jason Gibbs, Gov. James Douglas' press secretary.
"Our view is that this is an isolated incident and the value of the registry to parents and communities outweighs the impact of one isolated incident," Gibbs said.
Advocates of an expanded online registry — including the governor — have insisted that Vermont's current list does not contain enough information about enough people. The Senate has expanded the types of convictions that would be included on the Web site, and has made it easier to place convicts' information online.
As it stands now, Vermont's online sex offender registry includes people who are convicted of sexual crimes and who are deemed by the Department of Corrections to high risks to offend again, those who have not completed treatment and those who have been convicted of serious sex crimes, such as rape.
Sen. Richard Sears, D-Bennington, is a proponent of expanding the Web site, although he is rethinking a provision of the bill — that his colleagues just passed — allowing law enforcement agencies to release specific street addresses of offenders.
"You never anticipate anything that tragic happening," Sears said of the Maine killings. "We discussed our concern over vigilantism, and that's part of the reason we don't put addresses on our online registry. Something like this really gives me pause about even allowing police agencies to release specific addresses."
The underlying crime bill, of which the online registry changes are a part, will likely be part of a conference committee over the next several weeks.
"I support having the registry," Sears said. "It does give people information, but it is important to realize that it can't protect everyone. There are many sex offenders who have not been arrested or convicted."
Every state has a sex offender registry, and even some companies — including one in Florida — sell reports of sex offender locations across the country. Armed with an e-mail and a ZIP code, a person can go the National Alert Registry online site and get a free report of the number of registered sex offenders living within several miles.
Detailed reports, including photographs, addresses and criminal dossiers can be purchased for $10.
Some states or communities may be missing from such privately run national registries, which reply upon the participation of each state government.
For example, plugging in Rutland's and Montpelier's ZIP codes at the National Alert Registry revealed no registered sex offenders in either area. Vermont's own online registry, however, reports there are 21 registered sex offenders in Rutland County and 19 in Washington County.
The use of online registries to track convicted and released sex offenders has been an emotional topic in the Statehouse and throughout the country.
"We need to find the balance between trying to allow for successful reintegration of offenders with innocent citizens' right to be safe and right to protect their kids," said Rob Hofmann, the state's corrections commissioner. "This is a difficult predicament."
There have been no reports of violence against anyone on the Vermont sex offender registry, according to state officials. And officials in Maine said they would decide by today how long they would keep their listing of more than 2,000 sex offenders off the Internet.
Sen. Wendy Wilton, R-Rutland, said that the Maine shootings were tragic and unacceptable. But she remains a strong supporter of releasing as much information about convicted sex offenders to the public as possible.
"On balance, giving people the availability of information to keep themselves and their children safe is a far greater benefit for society as a whole," she said Monday. "We need to err on the side of community notification."
Contact Darren Allen at darren.allen@timesargus.com.
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