September 29, 2010

County says law limits sex offender e-mail notification plan

If anyone understands EXACTLY what law prohibits what they want to do, please contact eAdvocate. Whatever this prohibition is, it may also affect ALL the iPhone type Offender locator programs, hopefully stop them.
9-29-2010 California:

San Diego County is launching a one-year pilot program to inform neighborhoods by e-mail whenever the status of a registered sex offender living near them changes.

County Supervisor Bill Horn had proposed a more extensive notification that would have provided the offender's name, photo and address.

That was scuttled, however, when the state Attorney General's office told county officials that such detailed notification regarding a specific offender being disseminated by county e-mail violated state law.

County Counsel John Sansone said Tuesday discussions between his office, the county District Attorney and the Attorney General made it clear the law prohibits what Horn wanted. More precise information on how the law prohibits dissemination of that information by targeted e-mail was not immediately available.

"We are protecting the wrong people and the law needs to catch up with technology," Horn said. "The penal code is behind technology, really. We have some dangerous predators out there."

What the county can do, said Greg Thompson, a senior policy adviser with the Sheriff's Department, is send out an e-mail alert that an offender's status has changed, directing recipients to the California Megan's Law website that tracks registered sex offenders.

San Diego County has about 4,000 registered sex offenders with roughly 25 percent of that number under some form of supervision such as parole, Thompson said.

Supervisors unanimously approved spending $20,000 to develop the e-mail system and agreed to review how it's working after a year.

They also agreed to make it a priority to lobby to change that aspect of state law that prohibits the detailed, targeted e-mail. ..Source.. by Mark Walker

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