Molester Identification Hotline Hailed as a Success by Lungren

For a year, the calls have come in almost daily to California’s Child Molester Identification Line.

One caller was an employee at a water amusement park, where nearly 1,000 children visited daily. The worker was nervous that an adult--who arrived alone but frequently talked to children at the park--purchased an all-summer pass. As it turned out, the subject had been convicted in 1986 for lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14.

Another caller was a parent who had heard that her child’s new Little League coach was a child molester. Sure enough, the subject had been convicted in 1990 and in 1992 for lewd acts with children.

Yet another caller was a mother of two children who wanted to check on her husband. She saw a notice in the mail requesting that he register as a child molester, but he had never mentioned anything about it to her. The woman found out that he had been convicted in 1979 for sex crimes against children.

Since its inception last July, the hotline has helped thousands of parents and other adults identify more than 497 convicted child molesters, officials announced earlier this month. In all, nearly 5,800 calls have been made to the hotline operated by the state Department of Justice.

“Over the past year, the line has received a greater percentage of hits than I ever expected,” said state Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren. “With almost 500 hits--calls in which the subject is positively identified as a registered child molester--we know that many children have been saved from a horrible crime.”

Officials are hoping to increase their success rate by stepping up their efforts to inform the public about the hotline.

At a joint news conference, Lungren, representatives of Kids Safe and officials for Eller Media announced a statewide billboard campaign to advertise the number.

For a $10 fee, the public can dial (900) 463-0400 and learn whether up to two individuals are among California’s 37,000 registered child molesters. Callers must be 18, give their name and explain how a child is at risk of molestation. They also must have the individual’s name and either his or her address, driver’s license number, Social Security number or date of birth.

What the public does with the information is up to them, but Lungren is pushing a bill that would make it easier for companies to deny products or services to known child molesters.

“It’s a real tool,” said Jayne Shapiro, president of Kids Safe. “People don’t know they have the ability to learn if a baby sitter or a janitor could be a child molester.”