Megan's Law restrictions questioned
by Kelly Feser Eells

While crime affects all of us in one way or another, crimes against children rock all but the evil-minded among us to our very foundations.
We can scarcely watch a mother's plea for an abducted child's return on television, much less wrap our minds around the horrors endured by Marc Klaas and every family living with the ghost of a murdered child. And though this is indeed a community blessed, at some level most of us realize that the tragedies of our not-so-close neighbors are ours, too.
Longtime valley resident Peter Crane puts it another way: "Enough is enough!" Danielle Van Dam, Elizabeth Smart, Samantha Runnion: Crane, already sickened and alarmed by the ever-increasing frequency with which these tragedies were occurring, visited the Ventura County Sheriff's Department of Records, checked into a Megan's Law "viewing station," and discovered there are 30 convicted sex offenders living in the Ojai Valley. Now he was angry.
"Eighteen are living in the 93023 zip code; 12 in the 93022 zip code; all of them are serious offenders. But the Sheriff's Department won't give out the addresses of these people - just a name, photograph, and some sort of description with respect to the seriousness of their crime."
Increasingly agitated, Crane asks, "Why is our society protecting these people in the sense that it is difficult to identify and locate them? Why do you have to go down to the county office? You can't take a picture of them, print anything out; you can just 'observe.'"
Megan's Law is named for seven-year-old Megan Kanka, who was raped and killed by a known sex offender that moved across the street from her family without their knowledge - viewing stations are available at law enforcement agencies throughout the county)
Records Supervisor Dave Robinson answered Crane's questions. "There have always been limitations to how this information can be used," said Robinson, then acknowledged that California is far more restrictive than other states. "The intent of the program is to let people know there are offenders in their midst without compromising the privacy of the individual or," as has been alleged in the past, "hurting that person's chances for a successful life after release."
While Californians must, as Robinson confirms, visit the stations in person, where staff runs an on-the-spot background check to prevent other sex offenders from "looking each other up," there are over 30 states that allow the (Department of Justice) database to be accessed from home. "There's always been a great deal of hue and cry from privacy rights advocates about legislating anything like that here in California," said Robinson.
"Still, we're just now implementing a new access system, which enables us to update our information every 24 hours. It also permits us to get more, as well as increasingly accurate, information."
Though the new system reflects anywhere from 750-1000 new transactions per day, Robinson assures concerned residents that "those aren't necessarily more offenders; they could include offenders who've moved or died."
Though there is no set time limit, Robinson said staff tries to keep people from using the booths - which must be visited alone - longer than 30 minutes at a time. "They could come every day if they wanted to. We simply watch to make sure people are doing the appropriate things, and that includes not having young children accompanying parents or going into the booths with them."
Crane, who has two high school-aged children, grudgingly accepts the facts as they are; but it doesn't make him any less sad. "I don't see how it is the right of a convicted sex offender to remain 'locationally' anonymous. What about my right to know if I'm living next door to one or not?"

© 2002 The Ojai Valley News

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