"Dear Parents:I am writing to inform you about your rights under Megan's Law. During its most recent session, the Connecticut legislature enacted Public Act 98-111, which is commonly known as Megan's Law.
Megan's Law requires persons, who have either been convicted or found not guilty by reason of a mental disease or defect of a "sexually violent offense," to register with the Connecticut Department of Public Safety ("DPS"). The individual must provide specific information, including his name and address, when he registers. Other individuals required to register under this law include persons convicted of sexually violent offenses or felonies committed for sexual purposes; or persons found not guilty of such offenses by reason of a mental disease or defect in other states, federal courts, military tribunals or foreign courts. All persons required to register must promptly inform DPS of any change in their residence.
DPS is required by statute to maintain a registry containing the names, addresses and other required information of the persons listed above. The registry is a public record that must be accessible to the public during normal business hours and on the Internet. Local police departments and state police barracks must make the registry information transmitted to it by DPS available to the public during normal business hours as well. Local and/or state police may, in their discretion, provide information from the registry to government agencies, private organizations and/or private individuals if the information is "necessary to protect the public or any individual in any jurisdiction" from a person subject to registration under the new law. School districts have no obligation to provide such information to parents or others, and we have been advised that dissemination of this information is not within the responsibilities of school districts.
If you have any questions concerning Megan's Law, please contact the Bristol Police Department or the Connecticut Department of Public Safety."
This was then signed by Ann Clark, Ph.D., Superintendent of Schools for Bristol.
Now I have to admit though I consider myself an intelligent and literate person, I had to read through this letter several times. Not because I didn't understand it, it very clearly states my 'right to know' as a parent and what the parameters of those rights are under the law. The reason I read through this several times was because, after I nodded with a happy smile thinking 'Megan's Law good', I couldn't find within this notice any true contact information. Yes they did state "The registry is a public record that must be accessible to the public during normal business hours and on the Internet." Then they went on to say that local police departments and state police barracks must make the information available during normal business hours as well. As well as who? Going back and perusing the document again, I'm pretty sure they mean the DPS as that makes the most sense.
Nowhere within the document are the phone numbers, locations or the name of who to speak to or what department to ask for if one is to call the local or state police or the DPS. Not once was the URL for where on the Internet to find the information stated anywhere within this letter. It is wonderful to be informed that these rights are mine as a concerned parent, but other than a cursory 'go ask someone else', I am given no resources for exercising those rights.
I know that many parents out there, however concerned, don't have the time within their busy days to scour through search engines, phone books, make calls to their local police or the DPS. It does not take a lot of time and is not all that hard a thing to do, but I myself admit that this notice sat on the kitchen table for a few days before I myself got around to it. There were dishes to be done, doctors appointments to make, quality time to spend and besides... something like 'that' could never happen to my kids.
When I finally got a chance to sit down and root out the information, I found several resources, which I have listed. Bringing up my web browser, I did a search on Altavista for 'sex offender registry Connecticut'. The first link listed was for the Hartford police site which when clicked on, seemed to be either down or nonexistent. The second on the list was functional and extremely informative. The Connecticut Sex Offender Registration and Community Notification is a page that describes, in brief but to the point terms, the application of this law to us here in Connecticut as well as the link to our registry. For in-depth explanation of Megan's Law as well as articles and links concerned with child safety, Klass Kids is a fantastic resource and I recommend that every parent or guardian pay it a visit.
After perusing the Klass Kids site, I clicked on over to the Connecticut registry. The search they provide allows for looking up someone's name or just entering the town and zipcode. The name search I feel is a wonderful tool to check out someone within your neighborhood or who your child is in contact with, who you might have suspicions about. One bit of advice I would give to any parent is that if you have suspicions about someone your child is in contact with and their name does not come up on this search... do not dismiss your worries, that only means this person has not been convicted or found not guilty due to a mental disease or defect.
The town search is a wonderful tool for anyone new to a neighborhood or even someone who has resided in said town for their whole lives. Even if you do not move about, many other people do and it is always wise to check this registry once every few months to learn if there is anyone potentially dangerous within your neighborhood. I was surprised to note how many registered sex offenders were within a frightening close distance to where I myself live. We must not fool ourselves though. Even if your entire town comes up free of registered sex offenders, there are many entries within the listing who are 'Not in compliance' for either not confirming their addresses or not registering at all. There is also the transportation factor, a sex offender might live in one town, yet travel quite a distance quite quickly and commit other offense there. That is one reason I believe the scanned photographs placed beside the information is a good idea and I was disappointed to say many of the entries had no photograph let alone address or physical description information.
As I looked through the listing of offenders residing or last known to be residing in my town, I noticed the link to contact the police and/or DPS with any information someone might have to fill in the blanks on those who are 'not in compliance'. I wondered how many people who might know any of those listed would know they are 'not in compliance' and how many of those would take the time to supply any accurate information. I for one would have, but browsing through the names I saw, did not know any of them. Even if you are not a parent, I urge you to look through the registry listing those in your town and if you do know the address of someone listed as being 'not in compliance' with this law, inform, inform, inform. With this issue, with this law that so deeply concerns the safety of children, there is no excuse for not turning into an informant.
To an extent it can be confusing to know what to do with the information provided through Megan's Law. With all the places we go and all the people driving around in this era of quick and easy transportation, we could scour through the listings for the entire state and still not afford ourselves any true awareness. Firstly, no one can be expected to memorize or recognize all those faces and names for when we might see that person on the street. The most reasonable thing that we can do is to run the search for a particular name of someone we might be leery about. Along with this we should also always double check through the listings of our own town or towns we frequent. Be sure that none of the people who are regularly accessible to your children are on the list. As parents we are responsible to do all we can to protect our children. Megan's Law goes a long way to making it much more possible to do much more toward fulfilling our parental responsibilities. Assuring we are not unknowingly our children to come in contact with people known to be potentially abusive and dangerous.
Following are important links and contact information.
http://www.klaaskids.org/st-conn.htm - any state you are in, here you will
find the way to your registry.
http://www.state.ct.us/dps/Sor.htm - The Connecticut Sex Offenders Registry.
State Police Hartford office - 534-1000 or statewide information - 1-800-842-0200
Department of Public Safety - 1-888-767-7667