Cops Scrapping Registry Computer System

1-21-2011 Vermont:

There are so many errors in the state’s online sex offender registry that the Department of Public Safety is replacing the computer system used to operate the registry.

A new system is being purchased with funds obtained through a special federal grant.

The errors were found last year in a legislatively-ordered audit of the accuracy of the information posted in the online registry. The question of accuracy was raised because two years ago the legislature decided that the home addresses of sex offenders should be listed online.

The proposal was controversial, though, because in other states vigilantes have gone to the listed homes of sex offenders and shot the occupants. In some cases, offenders following all the terms of their probation or release were killed. In others, the addresses were incorrect, and innocent people were killed or injured.

To mitigate the chance such tragedies could occur, the legislature delayed posting of the addresses until an audit of the registry’s current information was performed. If the audit was “unfavorable,” addresses could not be posted, legislators said.

The state auditor completed the audit this summer. The audit found significant errors in the processes used to maintain the registry information, and in the entry of information. There were even critical “single points of failure” where no checks existed to prevent mistakes.

Legislative committees have been briefed over the past two weeks by Auditor Tom Salmon and his IT and performance audits chief, Linda Lambert. Their report paints a grim picture of how the registry operates within the Department of Public Safety.

Sixteen individuals were erroneously posted on the registry. Four who should have been posted were not. More than two-thirds of offenders’ records had errors that were significant or serious.

One section of the audit was titled “Significant Control and System Limitations Warrant Urgent Attention.”

In 2009 the ACLU represented one of those individuals who had been listed erroneously. The individual had even pointed out the mistake to the Department of Public Safety, yet DPS refused to correct it until contacted by the man’s probation officer and threatened with a lawsuit. The story is told in an ACLU-VT blog post of November 2009. ..Source.. From ACLU Civil Liberties Blog Post