This legislation mandates that Sex Offender Registry Board and the State Police establish a memorandum of understanding to identify and locate offenders who failed to comply or could not be notified. The bill also requires the state police file an arrest warrant for any offender who violates the reporting requirements and expands the reporting requirements to include the state police and departments where the offender previously lived and worked. Finally, the bill also creates a new category of offenders, to be known as “Level Zero”, to be used to identify offenders who are appealing their classification. This would include individuals who avoid the notification efforts to delay their classification.

Following a review by the State Auditor that found some offenders who were not being monitored, I filed this legislation to close gaps in enforcement. The largest group that escaped supervision abandoned their approved residences during the process of appealing their level of classification. Because of due process issues outlined by the SJC, SORB is unable to classify offenders under the existing level system during an appeal. By establishing a statewide standard for alerting law enforcement, we can encourage more consistent and effective handling of these offenders and that it will be much more difficult for individuals to fall through the cracks.