SERINO PUSHES FOR TIGHTER MONITORING OF REGISTERED SEX OFFENDERS

ALBANY, NY—Sue Serino (R, C, I—Hyde Park) today announced that her bill to better monitor the whereabouts of sex offenders in New York passed in the Senate.

“We have no greater responsibility to the children of the state of New York than to ensure that we are doing everything that we can to protect their safety and well-being,” said Senator Serino. “Right now, we can do better and we have to do better when it comes to monitoring the whereabouts of registered sex offenders.”

Under current law, Level 3 sex offenders need to verify their registration every 90 days, however level 1 and 2 sex offenders are only required to mail in a verification form they receive each year on the date they originally registered. Given the lag in time and the predictability of these registration requirements, it is easy to imagine the myriad of ways an offender could scam the system to elude law enforcement and pray on communities outside of the one they claim to be their own.

Senator Serino’s bill seeks to make the offender registry more effective by shortening the amount of time between required registrations to every six months and randomizing the dates that offenders will have to verify their whereabouts in order to ensure that the offender is more likely to actually be living at the location at which they register.

“An offender registry is rendered useless if law enforcement does not have an accurate picture of where these offenders truly reside,” said Serino. “This bill would ensure that law enforcement has the tools they need to monitor offenders and better protect our children.”

 
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