SEX OFFENDERS: E-MAIL NOTIFICATION S.B. 128 (S-1): FLOOR ANALYSIS
Senate Bill 128 (Substitute S-1 as reported by the Committee of the Whole)
Sponsor: Senator Alan Sanborn
Committee: Judiciary
CONTENT
The bill would amend the Sex Offenders Registration Act (SORA) to require the Department of State Police to notify, by electronic or computerized means, any member of the public who subscribed in a manner required by the Department, when a person subject to SORA's publicly available compilation initially registered under the Act or changed his or her sex offender registration to a location that was in a zip code area designated by the subscribing member of the public.
(The Act requires the Department to maintain both a computerized database of registrations and a separate computerized database consisting of a compilation of individuals registered under SORA. The compilation is available to the public. The Act also provides that the Department may make information from the compilation available through electronic, computerized, or other accessible means. The Department maintains a website that includes the information in the compilation.)
MCL 28.730 Legislative Analyst: Patrick Affholter
FISCAL IMPACT
The bill would require the Department of State Police to pay for additional computer capabilities not possible under the current system that serves the Sex Offenders Registration Program. To provide the electronic notification capabilities that would be required under the bill, the Department would incur approximately $20,000 in new contracted computer programming costs. Should the Department incorporate the changes outlined in the bill into the planned establishment of a data system separate from the current Law Enforcement Information Network (LEIN) planned for the spring of 2006, the cost to provide these new services could be considerably less.
According to the Department, there have been approximately 14.9 million queries made to the sex offender's website. To support the operation of the State registry, approximately $350,000 has been raised from the imposition of a $35 registration fee placed on all registered sex offenders in the State. (Of the fee, $10 goes to local units.) To date, 14,000 registrants have paid the fee and 21,000 have yet to do so. (Of those, 11,000 are currently imprisoned.)
Date Completed: 5-19-05 Fiscal Analyst: Bruce Baker
Analysis was prepared by nonpartisan Senate staff for use by the Senate in its deliberations and does not constitute an official statement of legislative intent. sb128/0506