AR- Update: Scarlet Letter Driver's License For Sex Offenders

I can think of no normal scenario where printing "sex offender" on a driver's license will protect a child as this article implies and under these circumstances. If a officer is stopping someone, and the license did not contain SO, the officer is going to run that license anyway. Therefore, printing it on the license is no more than an attempt at shaming, and in my opinion illegal because in financial transactions, where a license is regularly used, that notation is more likely to result in denying the RSO as to the financial transaction. Hopefully, the ACLU will take up this case.

9-17-2008 Arkansas:

Lonoke County Sheriff Jim Roberson wants sex offenders in Arkansas to have a special driver's license.

Roberson says the idea is so simple, he can't believe someone didn't come up with it earlier. But right now it's just that, an idea.

He explains, "We want to see it go forward, but we need help. We need more people aboard."

It's an idea that Roberson believes will go a long way towards protecting children from sex offenders.

"It would be an icon on the license," says Roberson. "It could be a number. It could be a symbol."

Roberson says the purpose is to allow daycare workers or school employees to identify possible job applicants and for law enforcement to help them know who they're dealing with.

"The main thing is if we stop them in a school zone or a daycare zone or a child care zone of a church we can immediately identify them, find out what they are doing there and why," he says.

Similar measures and laws have been enacted in 22 other states. In Oklahoma, the phrase "sex offender" appears on the license in red three times. Delaware began a similar law ten years ago.

Sheriff Roberson says if it is implemented in Arkansas, and a person is convicted of a sex crime, their driver's license would be suspended until they go to Driver's Control to have their license coded.

It's a modern day scarlet letter; Roberson says geared to guard the most vulnerable and innocent.

He says, "One of the questions was what are the rights of the sex offender? And my deal is what about the rights of the victim? What about the rights of the victim that was sexually assaulted 60 times? What about that baby's rights?"

Roberson's office is in the process of sending letters about the proposal to Arkansas Drivers Control, the Arkansas Crime Information Center and to several state lawmakers. ..News Source.. by Ashley Blackstone