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Public safety forum was
informative, good starting point for common-sense reforms, says Monroe
lawmaker
Experts from all areas of
law enforcement participated in a public safety forum Monday, July 30 at
the Federal Way City Hall.
Rep. Kirk Pearson, Republican leader on the House Public Safety
Committee, attended the Federal Way meeting with law enforcement experts
and citizens discussed ideas to better protect our communities from sex
predators.
“The public forum was a much-needed community outlet for parents, and
children’s advocates to share ideas and offer suggestions to the
Legislature for some immediate action on outdated sex offender laws. The
Legislature is obligated to update and fix failing policies when we find
lapses, not wait six months and risk the lives of more children,”
Pearson, R-Monroe, said.
The first part of the program consisted of local and county law
enforcement experts, including Federal Way Police Chief Brian Wilson;
Pierce County Police Detective Ed Troyer; King County Prosecutor David
Hackett; and others, who helped explain how Washington’s sex offender
laws work and how they are enforced. The panel also included a
non-partisan legislative public safety policy who explained the history
of sex offender laws and how they have evolved since first created in
1990. The second half of the meeting was reserved for public comments.
Many of the suggestions from the forum echoed what the House Republicans
have already suggested:
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Address the 1,338
unregistered and homeless sex offenders in the state: A
representative from the King County Prosecutor’s Office said this
loophole in the law that needs to be closed – some offenders claim
homelessness to skirt the registration law
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Update our laws to
reflect new technology: Require all Level 3 offenders to wear
GPS tracking devices and require them to not only register their
physical address, and also their email address and websites
-
Public notification
requirements for Level 1 offenders moving into neighborhoods:
Pierce County Detective Ed Troyer said this would be “another tool”
for his overworked and understaffed department.
Pearson said another
problem with sex offender classification brought to light by law
enforcement is that offenders moving to Washington from out of state are
automatically assigned as a Level 1 offender until their records arrive
from their previous home state. That, said one forum attendee, should be
scrapped and, instead, Washington should require that all new state
resident sex offenders be classified as a Level 3 offender until records
from their previous residence can be verified.
House Republicans this week also called on the governor and the majority
Democrats to convene a special session to address a handful of
common-sense updates to sex offender laws during committee weekend in
September.
“I’ve been a vocal advocate for tougher sex offender laws that protect
our children and have been very outspoken about the failures at the
State Department of Corrections, specifically the deplorable leadership
of Secretary of Corrections Harold Clarke,” Pearson said. “Someone has
dropped the ball on monitoring felons, including sex offenders.”
“We’re talking about fixes that are so common-sense that I can’t
understand where any opposition to the special session would come from.
One website even asks the question, ‘are tougher sex offender laws the
answer?,’” said Pearson. “I believe the public would say ‘yes’, so
what’s the hold up? All 148 legislators are already slated to be in
Olympia at that time.”
Pearson added that there are just under 60 days until the Legislature
convenes for the committee weekend, allowing more than enough time to
look at some simple, no-nonsense updates to Washington’s sex offender
laws.
“If former Governor Gary Locke could organize a task force to come up
with a complex legislative bill package in just 30 days to keep Boeing
in Washington a few years back, our current governor can surely get
folks on board and prepared in 60 days with a package of moderate
proposals that address critical updates to our sex offender laws,”
Pearson said.
“We don’t need to wait until January to make the common-sense
adjustments to our laws that will protect our children,” Pearson said.
A letter to the governor requesting a special session was delivered Aug.
2 along with a detailed timeline for solidifying proposals by the Sept.
27 Legislative Committee Assembly Days in Olympia.
# # #
For more information, contact:
Bobbi Cussins, Information
Officer: (360) 786-7252
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