NY- How to control sexual offenders

7-16-2009 New York

Really, now. How much clearer could it be to all those well-meaning county legislators and town officials across New York, so determined to protect their constituents from convicted sex offenders, that the legality of doing so is going to be determined in a state court, not a local meeting hall?

Kudos to Acting State Supreme Court Justice Roger McDonough for overturning an Albany County law that would have banned more serious sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of schools or child care facilities, even after completing parole or probation. He did so on the sensible grounds that what the county did is superseded by state law.

This most sensitive of issues may soon enough be before the highest court in New York. From the Court of Appeals, we would hope, will come the strongest message yet that preventing sex offenders from preying upon more victims is best achieved by the uniformity of statewide regulations and services, and not the more scattershot approaches of much smaller jurisdictions.

Judge McDonough's ruling cites arguments against the now moot Albany County law by three sex offenders. He wrote that their objections "demonstrate that the state has expressed a desire to legislate in the field of sex offender monitoring, regulating and management, thereby pre-empting and prohibiting localities from doing so."

Yet here's the Colonie Town Board, with a proposed law on its agenda tonight that would impose a limit on how many convicted sex offenders could live in a given motel or hotel in the town

What would that achieve, exactly -- beyond, that is, sending troubled and potentially dangerous people from the cheap motels of Central Avenue to similar lodging elsewhere? Or, worse, underground?

How would the Colonie proposal achieve what its proponents say it would, namely aid the well-being of motel and hotel guests in general?

The perpetrators of sex crimes are pawns in policies that pit citizens against citizens and governments against governments. Laws intended to monitor them instead can drive them away, from their families and from available treatment.

Three times this year, in Rockland County, Rensselaer County and now Albany County, courts have said that regulation of sex offenders is effectively determined by laws that the state Legislature passed last year and took effect this year. If they're insufficient, the Legislature can strengthen them.

Here's Albany County Legislator Daniel McCoy, who pushed for the law there, calling for tougher and more sweeping state laws. That's a more constructive approach to such an unsettling problem. No one's interests are served by regional competitions, of sorts, to see who's more intolerant of sex offenders.

The issue:

Another local law is overturned in court.

The Stakes:

The state needs a uniform system for sex offenders. ..Editorial.. by TimesUnion.com