PERSPECTIVE ON CRIME : Know Who Your Neighbor Is : Lift the ban on making rapists’ and sex offenders’ whereabouts public.

Should citizens have the right to know if a convicted sexual predator is living in their neighborhood? While most people would probably say “yes,” many would be surprised to learn that California law currently prohibits local police departments from telling the public if a convicted sexual offender (other than a child molester) has registered with law enforcement and where he is residing.

The law can and should be changed and the need to change it is most evident in the current case of the “Pillowcase Rapist,” Reginald Muldrew, who may be living somewhere in California.

Muldrew was convicted of four counts of rape with force and a number of other crimes. Police believe he may be linked to more than 200 other rapes in the Los Angeles area. He is a sexual predator.

While in prison, Muldrew refused rehabilitation efforts. A psychologist examined him shortly before his release; it was reported that he was mentally disordered and considered dangerous. However, he was released last month and flew to Las Vegas where he said he intended to only spend one night. Laws in both Nevada and California require that he register with police upon moving to or within the state.

In California, the ban on public disclosure of a rapist’s location would change with proposed legislation that is scheduled to be heard on Tuesday in the Assembly’s Public Safety Committee.

This bill deserves support; the citizens should have a right to know if sexual predators are living in their community.

Current law protects the criminal rather than his victims.

Notifying the police and not the public is pointless. It is not the police who are at risk of being raped. Law enforcement should have a duty to warn the public if they know the whereabouts of a known dangerous risk.

Some criminal defense attorneys or civil libertarians would argue that Muldrew has served his time and should now have a right to privacy. That argument is without merit. Rapists and child molesters have committed such heinous acts that they have lost their right of privacy.

Why does the law protect the convicted rapists and leave the victims in fear? Ostensibly it is to protect the rapists against vigilantism, but it is far more likely that the sexual predator will attack again than that the victims will search out and harm their attacker. In the 18 months since the state set up a “900” number that the public can call to ask if an individual is a registered child molester, we have not learned of any increased vigilantism. There is no reason to believe we would see any rise in vigilantism if the state simply told citizens what it knows about a rapist’s location. If there are incidents of vigilantism, they could, and should, be punished under the law.

Knowledge is power. If knowledge helps a victim of violent crime sleep at night, it should be provided. If it alerts a victim that a predator is roaming the streets of her neighborhood, she can seek extra protection or even relocate if that would help her psychological recovery.

Our mothers, children, sisters, co-workers and friends may be this man’s next victims, and if they are, their lives may be changed forever. We also know that the chances of a serial sex offender not raping again are near zero.

The police require registration to help apprehend criminals after they commit their next offense. Victims and the public want to know where the predators are to prevent the next offense from happening to them.