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Bills to
improve monitoring, tracking of sex offenders move forward
Rep. Kirk Pearson's public safety measures get
strong support
The debate on improving
public safety to better monitor and track sex offenders released into
communities statewide has turned into legislative action. Legislation
sponsored by Rep. Kirk
Pearson, House Bill 2444, requiring convicted sex offenders and
kidnappers to disclose their e-mail and Internet Web sites they operate
or create to authorities received bipartisan approval from the House
Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Committee today.
"This bill is incredibly
important because child predators are using new Internet technology to
find and lure victims. As technology becomes more sophisticated our laws
must be updated to reflect the new tricks criminals use to break the law and harm people," said Pearson, R-Monroe. "States like Florida have
found e-mail and Web site registration to be a helpful tool in finding
online child predators, and recovering victims lured over the Internet."
Convicted sex offenders
are already required to register their physical residence as well as
other identifying information and any aliases. House Bill 2444 simply
adds an e-mail and Internet Web site registration requirement to the
terms of the release.
"We need these
common-sense approaches to public safety laws," Pearson said. "We know
the Internet is an area where kids are vulnerable so taking this step to
better protect families and catch the bad guys is just the right thing
to do."
Pearson also sponsored
public safety bills 2443 and 2445. House Bill 2443 would authorize
Community Corrections Officers to perform unannounced inspections of the
most dangerous Level 3 sex offenders, and sex offenders convicted of sex
crimes against a minor and those who have a prior convictions for
failing to register. House Bill 2445 would require all sex offenders to
submit a biological, or DNA, sample for inclusion in a DNA-identification database.
"I believe these are the
right protections and safety measures our citizens deserve," Pearson
said.
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For more information, contact:
Bobbi Cussins, Public Information Officer:
(360) 786-7252
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