Tracking sex offenders

Keith Paul

Sunday, Feb. 13, 2000 | 8:40 a.m.

While states like Alaska and Utah have easily searchable databases of sex offenders available to anyone with a computer and a modem, Nevada is still struggling to create a usable database just for law enforcement.

In 1997 the state Legislature strengthened Nevada's version of "Megan's Law" to require a searchable database of sex offenders for law enforcement and an individual assessment of sex offenders to determine their level of threat to the community.

State officials said the huge amount of data involved in the program and the need for a new computer system bogged down implementation of the new law. But within two months, they expect to have the new database for law enforcement up and running.

"It's a great deal of information that was a large undertaking," said Dennis DeBacco, manager of the state's criminal justice information system. "We're currently behind legislative mandates, but the data is in place to be put into the system."

The need for a sex offender database is clear. Anytime there is a sexual assault, police detectives consider previously convicted sex offenders who may match the method and particular type of victim. But without a searchable database, Nevada detectives don't always know the whereabouts of convicted sex offenders.

"We welcome it. Anything that can help us, we welcome without a doubt," said Lt. Tom Monahan of Metro Police's sexual assault unit. "I consider it a very important tool.

"Now this will give us an identity. It will give us a name. We would be foolish not to consider them. This isn't fiction. It's statistical and scientific fact that they have urges that they say they try to control, but sometimes they can't control those urges."

But whether it will be a complete listing of Nevada's sex offenders is still in doubt.

The state Division of Parole and Probation -- one of the agencies charged with creating the registry -- pegs the state population of sex offenders at 2,418, with 1,516 residing in Clark County. Yet the Nevada Criminal History Records Repository -- the agency that maintains the registry -- has only about 1,300 sex offenders on its list.

But Metro Police's sex offender unit says there are more like 4,000 to 5,000 sex offenders just in their jurisdiction.

"There were 3,500 registered with Metro at one time and that was three years ago, so I don't know where they came up with their number," said Detective Chuck Tartan, who handles sex offenders for Metro. "I know there's not a sector (patrol beat) that doesn't have a sex offender living in it."

While all sex offenders are included in the state's registry, only those convicted of felonies are reviewed by parole and probation to determine what threat they may pose to the community, said Clay Thomas, acting chief of the agency. That is one of the reasons that could lead to the differences in the numbers as Metro's count also includes those convicted of misdemeanors.

Currently, the only way for police to search the files requires knowing a sex offender's name, Social Security number or other identifying factors.

The new searchable database will give police another tool in trying to catch suspects such as in a December case when Metro was trying to identify a suspect in six attempted abductions of 12- and 13-year-old girls in southwest Las Vegas.

The case of admitted child molester Larry Wisenbaker, who was sentenced by a Clark County judge to several life terms earlier this month, illustrates why sex offender lists need to be as detailed as possible.

And not just for local cases. Had Georgia authorities listed Wisenbaker in their sex offender database, he probably wouldn't have been able to get a job in the Boulder City Children's Home where he molested and sexually assaulted 16 boys.

Wisenbaker landed in Nevada after fleeing Texas, where he was suspected of molesting two boys at the West Texas Boys Ranch. Texas officials didn't pursue the matter. Nevada officials also learned at the time of Wisenbaker's sentencing that he had been convicted of child abuse at a Georgia children's home. There were allegations he fondled one of the Georgia boys, but a plea agreement didn't include any sexual misconduct crimes. And he was never added to the state's sex offender registry.

States startied passing laws creating sex offender lists in the wake of the rape and beating death of 7-year-old Megan Kanka, who was lured out of her home in 1994 by a neighbor who was later determined to be a convicted sex offender.

In Nevada's version of the law, each sex offender is required to register with local law enforcement and the state Division of Parole and Probation.

Each felony-convicted sex offender's file goes through an evaluation -- called tier assessment -- to determine the level of threat the offender poses to the community. The review includes a nationwide criminal search on the offender and getting records from out-of-state agencies. Since the law was enacted in October 1997, 1,497 offenders have been reviewed and assessed.

Those considered least likely to re-offend are assigned to tier one and local law enforcement is notified.

Sex offenders in tier two are considered more likely to re-offend. When they move into a neighborhood, local police are notified and they are then required to alert community organizations that involve children.

Tier three sex offenders are ones determined to be most likely to re-offend. In those cases, police must notify residents in the neighborhood where the sex offender lives. There is currently only one tier three sex offender living in Las Vegas.

"We went door to door in the neighborhood to make notifications," Tartan said. "We put up fliers to have a community meeting and he moved. We put fliers again and he moved again, so we decided to go door to door."

Unlike other states that are posting sex offender listings on the Internet, Nevada residents won't be able to search the registry to find out if their new neighbor is a convicted sex offender. Only the Nevada Legislature, which doesn't meet again until 2001, will be able to change the law to make the registry public.

Critics may see sex offender registry websites as an invasion of privacy, but some states' laws mandate the list be made available to the public, and the Internet is often an easy way to make it available.

In Tulsa, Okla., putting the city's registry on the Web has already helped catch one sex offender, police Cpl. Randy Lawmaster said.

His department put its list online in September and is now getting 10,000 hits a week.

"People started looking at it because they are interested in who lives in their neighborhood," he said. "A woman was looking on the site and saw her friend's baby-sitter. They doubled-checked and it was him."

The woman called police and it turned out her children had been molested. The man was charged, Lawmaster said.

"In this case it worked," he said.

But when Alaska decided to go online with a sex offender website, the American Civil Liberties Union objected.

"We just think it's bad public policy," said Jennifer Rudinger, executive director of the Alaska ACLU. "Beyond the privacy issues, there is the issue of someone hacking into the website and adding innocent people's names."

But others are concerned that the information will create a backlash.

"I don't know what the purpose of this law is. The people who need to know -- school and shelters -- are informed directly," said Philip Jenkins, a history professor at Penn State University and author of a 1998 book about the history of sex offenders. "Putting the names on a list widely available to everyone makes rehabilitation or a cure hopeless and can provoke vigilantism."

Several lawsuits in various states have challenged sex offender registry laws on the basis of privacy violations and failure for the laws to include an appeal process to get off the list.

"I'd really like to know where the thieves live. I'd like to know where the people committing fraud by selling penny stocks live," Jenkins said. "We've been here before. In the 1940s the same kinds of (sex offender) lists were created, but also fell apart because of the same (legal) concerns."

But sex offenders aren't like robbers, Monahan said.

Sex crimes often are committed because a person has a compulsion that continues until that need is fed, he said.

"A robber is trying to get money, probably for some other need," Monahan said. "If they saw money on the street, they would stop and pick it up, not step over it and go and rob someone."

Keith Paul covers crime and public safety for the Sun. He can be reached at (702) 259-4057 or by e-mail at keith@lasvegassun.com.

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