San Jose on its way to becoming one of the first California cities to post detailed sex offender information on the Internet

By Kymberli W. Brady

Staff Writer

In a nationwide push to keep the public notified about registered sex offenders, law enforcement agencies across the country are now trying to use the Internet as a tool to combat the same sexual predators who have been using it as a playground for communicating with their victims. More importantly, they say the registries arm parents with a powerful tool—information. Currently, 35 states post sexual offender information on the Internet, but California isn't one of them–at least not yet.

Since 1947, California law has required sex offenders to register with police once released from prison. In 1996, the state passed its version of Megan's Law, named after Megan Kanka, a 7-year-old New Jersey girl who was raped and murdered by a paroled child molester living on her street. The law allows the public access to information on serious and high-risk sex offenders living in their neighborhoods. Until now, the information has been made available on a limited basis, only at police stations and with enough strings attached to discourage most would-be users from attempting to access it.

On Tuesday, the City Council voted unanimously to allow the San Jose Police Department to post photos and locations of 28 high-risk offenders living in the city on its Web site. If the final proposal passes in November, San Jose will become one of the only cities in the state to make the database available to the community via their own computers. According to Vice Mayor Pat Dando, the Web site is expected to go live sometime in December.

After a March 5 Supreme Court decision ruled that placing information on registered sex offenders over the Internet was constitutional, Dando submitted a proposal, co-signed by Mayor Ron Gonzales, requesting that the police department post the information on its Web site, citing several factors, including the court ruling on Megan's Law, the release of Brian DeVries, and the need to further ensure the community's safety.

“Last year there were 31 pieces of legislation dealing with Megan's Law or sex offenses against children, and none of the proposed bills were passed,” says Dando. “Shame on us if we have this technology to protect a child from an offender and we don't make it accessible to the community.”

Even though San Jose is encircled by some of the most sophisticated technology in the world, getting this done hasn't been easy. A bill to extend Megan's Law, allowing continued public access to the database died in the State Assembly last September and threatened to send the it to an early grave until Governor Davis stepped in on Oct. 1 and signed a bill to extend it until 2007. But anyone who has ever taken the time to visit a police station to view the database will admit it's cumbersome at best.

The online registry will be a cheaper and more efficient way for San Jose–and ultimately the state of California—to fulfill community notification obligations under federal Megan's Law requirements.

Of the approximately 2,300 sex offenders registered in San Jose, 1,800 are classified as “serious” and 28 as “high risk,” those who have been convicted of a violent sex offense along with other crimes, making them dangerous offenders deemed most likely to repeat their crimes. Dando feels that although California has been a leader in tracking sex criminals, they are lagging way behind in making the information accessible. She hopes to eventually take the proposal to the state level and convince lawmakers to make take it statewide, complete with posting photographs and addresses online, citing New Jersey and Florida Web sites as highly successful models. “I'm hoping that San Jose will be one of the first cities in California to have this,” she says, “and push the legislature to have enough backbone to put this on the Internet.”

“It is crucial that San Jose use all legal measures possible to protect our residents, especially our youth, from sex offenders,” she adds. “This information is not intended to be used inappropriately or to harass convicted sex offenders, but to serve as a tool to make parents aware of who might be living down the street from them if they have children. To that end, our community deserves to have timely Internet access to the information.”