A Crusade Won, Then Forgotten

Families on Natal Drive in Westminster probably went to bed last night unaware that a convicted rapist was living just a few houses away.

Residents of the blue-collar neighborhood would have learned about him months ago if only they had taken a few minutes to go down to the city Police Department. There, gathering dust, is the agency’s “Megan’s Law” computerized database, listing every serious and high-risk sex offender registered in California. It’s open to the public.

“It’s hardly ever used,” said Westminster Lt. Bill Lewis. “We’ve had a couple people come down and do school projects on it. That seems to be the most common use lately.”

When Megan’s Law was adopted in California in 1996, allowing the public access to information about convicted child molesters, rapists and other sex offenders living in their communities, police agencies in Los Angeles and Orange counties were flooded with thousands of concerned parents, employers and school and day-care administrators.

Three years later, those same agencies report that only a trickle of people are coming in. Detectives also complain that some of the information provided by the Megan’s Law database is incorrect or outdated, in some cases listing sex offenders as living in certain cities long after they have moved, died or landed back in prison.

The Los Angeles Police Department, which has a computer for Megan’s Law at every police station, had 299 citizens sign on during the first six months of the year--about three people a month at each facility. The Santa Ana Police Department averages five to 10 visitors a month. Long Beach has seen 40 people all year.

“It’s pretty disappointing,” said Sgt. Bob Conklin, head of the Anaheim Police Department’s sex crimes unit. “Think about all the people who have children in day care, or involved in sports, or who have baby-sitters or Sunday school teachers. And we only have three people a month checking them out.”

By making the database accessible only at police departments, usually during business hours, the state has dampened public interest, Conklin said.

Door-to-Door Alerts, Community Meetings

To keep the public aware, more and more police departments are turning to the second, highly controversial weapon created by Megan’s Law--the authority to post fliers, go door to door and hold community meetings to alert residents that a sex offender has moved into their neighborhood.

Critics, including the American Civil Liberties Union, charge that the practice makes sex offenders vulnerable to vigilantism and harassment, or forces them into hiding. The local example most often cited occurred two years ago, when a sex offender’s van was firebombed in Walnut after police alerted neighbors to his violent criminal past.

Even within the law enforcement community, the tactic of active public notification is hotly debated. The Pasadena Police Department has decided against using that approach. The LAPD does not conduct public notifications, and the agency does not have a policy on the tactic.

“One of the big problems we have is it’s easy to get the information out, but once it’s out, how do you remove it,” said LAPD Det. David Berglund. “What if the person moves?”

Reports of retribution have proved rare, however, both in California and nationwide, according to criminologists and the California Department of Justice. The biggest fear, they say, is that sex offenders will move rather than risk harassment brought on by public exposure, a phenomenon detectives call “Megan’s flight.”

Chris Decker fled to Westminster’s Natal Drive for that very reason.

Convicted of raping two Orange County women in 1977, he was forced to move out of his Costa Mesa apartment building last fall after police posted fliers in his neighborhood identifying him as a high-risk sex offender. Decker was evicted at the insistence of other tenants.

He landed in Westminster a short time later. He has been living there unnoticed--but not for much longer. Westminster police are preparing a flier campaign to alert his neighbors.

“This man committed a rape 22 years ago. He’s not a risk, but he’s still being punished,” said Decker’s attorney, T. Matthew Phillips of Hollywood, who has filed a lawsuit against Costa Mesa alleging that the city did not have the authority to target his client.

“People in Orange County used to think they lived in ‘Leave It to Beaver’ land. They’ve got to realize that about one out of every 350 people out there is a registered sex offender,” Phillips said.

There are more than 82,000 sex offenders in the state, all of whom are required to register annually with their local law enforcement agencies under a statute that has been in effect since 1947. Nationwide, more than 276,200 sex offenders are registered with law enforcement agencies.

LAPD Focuses on Enforcing Registration

Instead of handing out fliers, LAPD officials said, the department devotes its resources to visiting and otherwise keeping tabs on sex offenders, making sure they are properly registered.

Community notification gets a lot of the attention, but enforcing registration “gives us the ability to take these people off of the streets before they victimize someone else,” said Diane Webb, detective supervisor for the LAPD’s Registration Enforcement and Compliance Team.

Over the past two years, 93 people from the San Fernando Valley alone have received prison sentences for not registering, and there are 46 more cases in progress, Webb said.

California’s version of Megan’s Law, named after a New Jersey girl killed by a repeat sex offender who moved into her neighborhood unbeknown to the families living there, requires all county sheriff’s departments and police agencies in major cities to provide public access to a CD-ROM database of registered sex offenders. Many smaller cities also provide a Megan’s Law computer voluntarily.

The state also has a Sex Offender Identification Line with a 900 telephone number that allows the public to check whether a person is a rapist or child molester. The call costs $10, and citizens can inquire about two people per call.

The caller must know the person’s name plus the exact date of birth, California driver’s license number or Social Security number. A detailed description may also suffice if only the person’s name is known. In July, the hotline received 636 inquires.

The CD-ROM database in police stations is more flexible, and allows residents to check their community and look at photographs of the offenders. The database includes the person’s name, description, sex crimes, birth date, ZIP Code and, in most cases, a picture. However, the offender’s address is not listed, and citizens must agree not to use the information to harass, retaliate or discriminate against any of the people listed.

“A woman came in a little while ago because she had a bad gut feeling about a coach at a local youth center,” said Sgt. Diana Walton of the Long Beach Police Department’s sex crimes unit. “She put his name in and, sure enough, he was on the CD-ROM as a child molester.”

Some victims rights advocates who pushed for Megan’s Law complain that requiring residents to go to a police station limits access. They want California to post the sex offender database on the Internet, which already is being done in 15 states, including Florida, Texas and Virginia.

“California’s Megan’s Law was good in its time, but there have been some pretty significant strides made since then,” said victims rights advocate Marc Klaas, whose 12-year-old daughter, Polly, was abducted from Petaluma and murdered in 1993. “We need to move to the Internet.”

California already has an unofficial Megan’s Law Web site--www.sexoffenders.net--run by a victims rights group in Pasadena, CrimeFight USA.

Volunteers go into police stations and, by hand, copy down information about each sex offender, since California law forbids state justice officials or police agencies from releasing copies of the database to members of the public. State law also places severe restrictions on distributing information from the database.

Using the Internet is a simple and efficient way to inform the public, but it carries substantial risks, said Scott Madson of the Center for Sex Offender Management, a Silver Spring, Md.-based nonprofit law enforcement research organization.

“The biggest concern is that the information posted might not be accurate,” Madson said. “What if a sex offender moved, as they often do. Then you’d be listing the address of some innocent person . . . who could be targeted by members of the community.”

Up to 15% of Listings May Be Inaccurate

Accuracy is also a major problem with California’s Megan’s Law database. The state estimates that up to 15% of the listings may contain inaccuracies--usually an outdated ZIP Code, said Mike Van Winkle, spokesman for the state Department of Justice.

“This is the most accurate information we have on hand,” he said, adding that the state relies on local police agencies that register the sex offenders to provide accurate and updated information.

However, in Anaheim only two out of the seven high-risk sex offenders that the database lists as living in the 92801 ZIP Code actually reside there. The other five have moved out of the city, and Anaheim police officials said they informed the state Justice Department of this more than a year ago.

The state database lists one of Orange County’s most infamous child molesters, Sid Landau, as missing. Landau has been convicted of molesting boys, one of them from Anaheim. “The whereabouts of this person are unknown,” the database warns in bold red letters. “If you recognize or know the whereabouts of this person, notify law enforcement immediately.”

In fact, parole officers for the state Department of Corrections know exactly where Landau lives, and have known ever since he was released from prison recently. But state law prohibits that department, which is separate from the agency that handles the Megan’s Law database, from disclosing his whereabouts, said corrections spokeswoman Margot Bach.

Bach can only say that Landau lives in Parole Region 2, which stretches from Ventura County to Humboldt County. “That’s the best we can do,” she said.

Landau was the first sex offender in California targeted by the full force of Megan’s Law, and in 1997 he bounced from motel to motel in north Orange County--each time forced to move when local police posted fliers identifying him as a high-risk sex offender and angry neighbors protested.

“When people are subjected to public notification, it does two things: It leads to harassment by neighbors and it forces [the offenders] to move,” said Elizabeth Schroeder, associate director of the ACLU of Southern California. “In a way, the public is actually increasing the likelihood that [the offenders] will commit another crime.”

Public exposure makes it difficult for sex offenders to put down roots or land stable jobs, which are critical if they hope to be rehabilitated and reconnect with the community, Schroeder said.

Many experts on molestation say the vast majority of assaults against children are committed not by strangers but by parents, relatives, friends, acquaintances and teachers. People may be lulled into a false sense of security if they only worry about registered sex offenders, Schroeder said.

Police detectives who keep tabs on sexual predators, often visiting them at home to verify their addresses and look for clues that they might strike again, also worry that public exposure will drive them into hiding.

“We feel that defeats the purpose,” said Long Beach Sgt. Walton. “If the registrant feels harassed and splits, then we don’t know where they are. And we want to know where they are at all times.”

When a high-risk sex offender moves to Long Beach, police call a neighborhood meeting. Only at the meeting is the person’s name, picture and location disclosed, and only after detectives tell residents of the realistic risks posed and warn people not to harass the offender.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department takes a more aggressive tack, generally posting fliers with the offender’s name and picture in specified locations throughout the community, such as neighborhood centers and libraries, said Lt. Art Valenzuela of the records and identification bureau.

The department, which has been using this policy for the past two years, also goes door to door and provides residents with a letter in English and Spanish that encourages them to go to the sheriff’s station for more information.

The department’s only recent case of neighborhood harassment came two years ago in Walnut, after deputies posted fliers warning that a serious sex offender lived in the area. The man’s van was firebombed in his driveway, said Det. Tim Barker. The case was never solved, and the offender has continued to live in the neighborhood, he said.

“This was an isolated incident that occurred, and we haven’t had any problem since,” Barker added.

The sheriff’s station that patrols Walnut decided this year to stop posting fliers and will instead warn residents by going door to door, Barker said. That tactic is more effective, law enforcement authorities say, and gives deputies a chance to answer questions and allay unwarranted fears.

“We determined that more people would get the word if we did it this way,” Barker said.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Where Sex Offenders Live

Convicted sex offenders released from prison must register their home address with police. About 25% of such convicted felons in California live in Los Angeles County. Counties with the most registered sex offenders:

*

LEGEND

High risk refers to those convicted of multiple violent crimes, including at least one violent sex crime.

Serious refers to those convicted of at least one violent sex crime.

Other refers to those convicted of less serious crimes, such as indecent exposure.

*

Source: State attorney general’s office