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| The California cow town where Ethel Sykes has lived with her family for 25 years is one of those Mayberry-type places where neighbors swap gossip over the back fence and leave their doors unlocked. ����������� But Sykes, who asked that her real name not be used for this article, fears her family members may become social pariahs in their close-knit community because of a law enforcement trend that's gaining momentum in California counties.� ����������� Frustrated by the failure of state lawmakers to establish a central online sex-offender registry, sheriff and police departments across California are taking the matter into their own hands and posting the names, photographs, criminal records and addresses of sex offenders in their jurisdictions on the Internet. | ||
| Sykes' husband is one of those sex offenders. | ||
| Under Megan's Law, states are required to notify residents when a sex offender moves into their neighborhood. For the past seven years, the California Legislature has considered bills to publish its sex-offender registry online, but each time the measure has died in committee. | ||
| California has the nation's highest number of sex offenders -- nearly 100,000 people -- and one of the nation's worst public-notification systems. While 42 states publish this information online where it can be viewed in a couple of mouse clicks, Californians must jump through hoops to obtain the same information -- by either viewing a CD at a police station or calling a 900 number and paying $10 for a name search. | ||
| The legislative opposition to bringing the California list online is partly due to the inaccuracy of the state's database -- a 2002 Department of Justice report found that nearly half of the offender files contained erroneous information, including wrong addresses. | ||
| Another concern is vigilantism. In February, for example, Bakersfield, California, police distributed a flier in a residential neighborhood with the name, photograph and address of a sex offender who'd recently moved into the area. A few weeks later, a knife-wielding vigilante tried to break down the sex offender's door and was gunned down by officers when he refused to drop his weapon. | ||
| The California cow town where Ethel Sykes has lived with her family for 25 years is one of those Mayberry-type places where neighbors swap gossip over the back fence and leave their doors unlocked. ����������� But Sykes, who asked that her real name not be used for this article, fears her family members may become social pariahs in their close-knit community because of a law enforcement trend that's gaining momentum in California counties.� ����������� Frustrated by the failure of state lawmakers to establish a central online sex-offender registry, sheriff and police departments across California are taking the matter into their own hands and posting the names, photographs, criminal records and addresses of sex offenders in their jurisdictions on the Internet. | ||
| Sykes' husband is one of those sex offenders. | ||
| Under Megan's Law, states are required to notify residents when a sex offender moves into their neighborhood. For the past seven years, the California Legislature has considered bills to publish its sex-offender registry online, but each time the measure has died in committee. | ||
| California has the nation's highest number of sex offenders -- nearly 100,000 people -- and one of the nation's worst public-notification systems. While 42 states publish this information online where it can be viewed in a couple of mouse clicks, Californians must jump through hoops to obtain the same information -- by either viewing a CD at a police station or calling a 900 number and paying $10 for a name search. | ||
| The legislative opposition to bringing the California list online is partly due to the inaccuracy of the state's database -- a 2002 Department of Justice report found that nearly half of the offender files contained erroneous information, including wrong addresses. | ||
| Another concern is vigilantism. In February, for example, Bakersfield, California, police distributed a flier in a residential neighborhood with the name, photograph and address of a sex offender who'd recently moved into the area. A few weeks later, a knife-wielding vigilante tried to break down the sex offender's door and was gunned down by officers when he refused to drop his weapon. | ||