So you want to have a Registry for Community Safety.

For those of you who believe we have to have a registry to protect our citizens. I have from time to time thought hard on this and I recognize the fact that there are people out there that just aren’t going to change their beliefs and attitudes towards other people and will continue harming others, so here’s my solution.

If we have to have a registry, which I believe is unconstitutional, then let’s limit it to the most dangerous people. In order to be legal within the Constitution it cannot be limited to just one class of crime or criminal. Plus it must be proven that they are the worst of the worst and a danger to society. So here’s how we go about that.

First of all it has to be a hands on crime, that is it has to have a real victim who has physically been harmed. the claiming of mental or emotional harm without physical harm is unrelated in that we all suffer mental and emotional damage from our daily lives. But were looking for the worst of the worst.

It follows that those that have hands-on crimes involving a victim that suffers physically, mentally and emotionally are the worst. So what would fall within this guideline.The first thing that comes to mind is rape and sexual assault but we can’t stop there that is only one class of crime. We would have to include murder and assault, that could also included home invasion if the victims in the home were physically harmed. This could also include armed robbery or even carjacking if physical harm came to a victim. Also included in this would be things such as DUI, DWI if there was injury to either people in the vehicle that the drunk driver was driving or in another vehicle. I think you get the gist so now we’ve laid out the guidelines for what type of crimes would be on the registry.

Next how a person attains a position on the registry. That would be from multiple separate convictions, understand this would not be from having multiple charges and one conviction. it would need to actually be actual separate convictions over a span of time specifically the second conviction would have to be after a person has been released from prison or jail or after or while on probation. To give you an example of something that would not put you on the registry is a person with an assault conviction who later burglarize a house with no one in it and is caught and convicted. this person would not be on the registry because that was not a hands on crime with physical victim. But a rape charge followed by an assault charge, or two separate DUIs both resulting in physical injury would be enough to put you on to the registry.

How would you be put on the dangerous criminal registry it would not be automatic it would be at the discretion of the judge to rather a person be placed on that registry. This is simply because the registry is a form of punishment and must come from the judicial branch.

Who gets to see that information?  It would be exclusively for law enforcement with the proviso that if a citizen was worried about the actions or interactions of a another person that they could go to law enforcement sign a document stating that they would not release that information to the general public and ask about a specific person. they would then be told about the persons convictions and that they are on the dangerous criminal registry.

There would have to be penalties for any citizen that use that information to harass, threatening or damage another person standing in the community. This proviso would only be to allow person to make the decision about their contact with another person, not a blanket release so that they, out of spite, hatred or seeking revenge do damage to another persons life or reputation.

After all the primary reason for having a registry of violent offenders is so that law enforcement has an idea of the violent offenders in their area. It also puts the violent offenders on notice that in any instance of a crime they will be the first people to be looked at and question such as in the new hit-and-run.

As for the length of time the person is on this registry it is limited to 10 years, if they have no other convictions of any kind, the person automatically comes off after that time. If a person can operate for 10 years in the community without another conviction they are highly unlikely to reoffend at all.

Reporting requirements. They would have to report four times a year information similar to the sex offender registry now. But it would also have to be tailored to the specific type of crime that place them on the registry by the judge. This way we have a registry of the worst of the worst that includes all crimes that are a danger to the community. Yet takes into account that people make mistakes and most people will learn from their mistakes, therefore we should not place a scarlet letter up on their head denying them the opportunity to better themselves and participate in the community.

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