SEX OFFENDERS: E-MAIL NOTIFICATION S.B. 128: COMMITTEE SUMMARY
Senate Bill 128 (as introduced 2-1-05)
Sponsor: Senator Alan Sanborn
Committee: Judiciary
Date Completed: 5-17-05
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 listed on SORA's publicly available compilation changed his or her sex offender registration to a location that was in, or within one mile of, a zip code area designated by the subscribing member of the public.
MCL 28.730
BACKGROUND
The Sex Offenders Registration Act requires the Department to maintain both a computerized database of registrations and notices required under SORA, and a separate computerized database consisting of a compilation of individuals registered under SORA.
Registrations are confidential and information from them is not open to inspection, except for law enforcement purposes. A State Police post, local law enforcement agency, or sheriff's department, however, must make information from the compilation available for public inspection for the zip code areas located in whole or in part within the post's, agency's, or sheriff's jurisdiction.
The Act also provides that the Department may make information from the compilation available to the public through electronic, computerized, or other accessible means. The Department maintains a website that includes the information in the compilation (which it refers to as the "public sex offender registry"): http://www.mipsor.state.mi.us/.
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.)
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