Committee
Justice 2 Sub-Committee, 13 Nov 2006
13 Nov 2006 · S2 · Justice 2 Sub-Committee
Item of business
Child Sex Offenders Inquiry
Mary Coffee:
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In Florida, registration started in 1993 with a small group of a few hundred sexual predators, as they were all then called. Since then, there have been several changes to state and national law and we now have two categories of individuals who register for sexual offences: sexual predators and sexual offenders.The system operates electronically, primarily. There is a direct electronic connection between our agency, which maintains the registry for the state, and the Florida Department of Corrections and the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, which issues driver licences and identification cards. Offenders and predators are also required to update their address information through that entity. Beyond that, there is additional electronic connection to all the law enforcement agencies across the state, which allows them to enter information on their activities as well as to update information through the reregistration process from each of our 67 counties with sheriff's offices. It is important to note that we in Florida do not perform a risk assessment to categorise registrants. They are administratively designated based on their individual convictions. As I said, the laws for sexual predators and offenders were not developed together—we dealt with predators prior to adding offenders in 1997. The level of an individual's conviction or their recidivist history determines whether they are required to register as an offender or a predator. Predators have committed a higher-degree felony or might have a recidivist history. If they are found by a court to be a predator, they are subject to stricter address verification frequency as well as to the mandatory community notification.Community notification is authorised for sexual offenders but is not mandatory in the state. However, all predators and offenders are posted on the state-wide internet site. I know that the committee is particularly interested in community notification. All our predators and offenders are posted on the website—that has been done since 1995. We have close to 39,000 individuals on the registry and we add anywhere between 150 and 350 a month, based on new convictions, individuals being released from incarceration and individuals from other states moving to Florida and being required to register as sexual offenders.Law enforcement agencies—representatives of two of which we have with us today—have differing methods of performing community notification, based on what works well for their communities and what resources they have. I will allow them to talk to you about how they perform that community notification and about their successes and challenges.
In the same item of business
The Convener (Jackie Baillie):
Lab
Good evening, everybody. Welcome to the fifth meeting of the Justice 2 Sub-Committee. We have received apologies from Alex Fergusson. We are undertaking a sh...
Mary Coffee (Florida Department of Law Enforcement):
I am from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in Tallahassee. I am the planning and policy administrator for Florida's registration programme, which co...
Jeremy Gordon (Florida Department of Law Enforcement):
I am from the sex offender and predator unit of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Dr Teion Harrison (Florida Department of Children and Families):
I am the director of the sexually violent predator programme for the state of Florida, which is operated by the Department of Children and Families.
Annamarie Whatley (Florida Department of Law Enforcement):
I am with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's sex offender and predator unit.
Tanya Weldon (Florida Department of Law Enforcement):
I am from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's sex offender and predator unit.
Alan Moses (Florida Department of Law Enforcement):
I am from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's sex offender and predator unit.
The Convener:
Lab
Welcome to you all. Can we go to Hernando County?
Detective Tom Breedlove (Hernando County Sheriff's Office):
Yes, ma'am. I am a detective with the Hernando County sheriff's office.
The Convener:
Lab
And from Fort Lauderdale?
Sergeant Edward Sileo (Broward County Sheriff's Office):
Good evening, ma'am. I am from the Broward County sheriff's office.
The Convener:
Lab
If we are going to get on well, you must all call me Jackie. You make me feel incredibly old when you call me ma'am.You have all been provided with the quest...
Mary Coffee:
In Florida, registration started in 1993 with a small group of a few hundred sexual predators, as they were all then called. Since then, there have been seve...
Detective Breedlove:
In Hernando County, we have nowhere near the same number of people as Broward County or Fort Lauderdale has. However, we have 232 sexual offenders and 10 pre...
The Convener:
Lab
That is interesting. How effective is the system in preventing reoffending?
Detective Breedlove:
I looked at the material on the Justice 2 Sub-Committee's website and I saw that like us, you do not have much information about the extent to which a person...
The Convener:
Lab
Have you ever received negative reactions from people whom you informed about a sex offender, whether they were the offender's immediate neighbours or lived ...
Detective Breedlove:
We have had negative reactions only from family members of the predator. Sometimes people say, "Oh my gosh, that person is moving back into the neighbourhood...
The Convener:
Lab
It is often suggested to the committee that such a system can lead to displacement of offenders. If I was an offender in Florida and was subject to such scru...
Detective Breedlove:
Is that question addressed to me?
The Convener:
Lab
It is a shame that I am asking you all the questions. Do not worry, I will get to Ed Sileo in a second.
Detective Breedlove:
Yes, ma'am.We have not noticed any displacement. It seems that more people want to move to Florida than want to move out. We do not consider 242 offenders an...
The Convener:
Lab
I want to move on, as I am conscious that I have monopolised Tom Breedlove's time.
Detective Breedlove:
Not at all.
The Convener:
Lab
To get a different perspective, let us move on to Ed Sileo in Fort Lauderdale.I am told by Tom Breedlove that Broward County covers a much larger and more de...
Sergeant Sileo:
Certainly. Tom—it is good to talk to you again. It has been a little while.We have approximately 1.6 million people in Broward County. Throughout the county,...
The Convener:
Lab
Thank you very much, Ed.
John Home Robertson (East Lothian) (Lab):
Lab
Tom told us a few minutes ago that there has been very little negative reaction in neighbourhoods when information has been given to the public. Is there a r...
Detective Breedlove:
We have not had any vigilante-type activity. As Ed Sileo does, we also try to encourage our predators to attend our community meetings when we make the notif...
The Convener:
Lab
My next question is to Ed Sileo first. The resource implications of what you do are obviously substantial—in your area, you check every 30 days whether sex o...