Relates to the definition, and information provided about, sex offenders

BILL NUMBER:S8136

Title of bill

An act to amend the correction law, in relation to the definition of, and information provided about, sex offenders

Purpose

This bill would amend deficiencies in the sex offender registration act by adding the offense of attempt to commit unlawful surveillance as a registerable offense, and by authorizing local law enforcement agencies to provide entities with vulnerable populations with the exact address of a Level 2 sex offender.

Summary of provisions

Section 1 of the bill would amend Correction Law § 168-a(2) (e) to require that persons convicted of an attempt to commit unlawful surveil- lance in the second degree, as defined in Penal Law 5250.45(2) (3) or (4), must register as sex offenders.

Section 2 of the bill would amend Correction Law §168-1(5) (b) to authorize a local allow enforcement agency providing community notifica- tion concerning a Level 2 sex offender to provide the offender's exact address.

Section 3 of the bill sets forth the effective date.

Existing law

Currently, under certain circumstances, a person convicted of the crime of unlawful surveillance must register as a sex offender. Under Correction Law §168-1(5) (b), the exact address of level 2 offenders cannot be distributed by law enforcement to entities with vulnerable populations,

Legislative history

This is a new proposal.

Statement in support

Unlawful surveillance is registerable where the defendant committed the offense for his own or another person's sexual gratification, or where an imaging device is installed in a bedroom, changing room, restroom or hotel room. However, currently under SORA, unlawful surveillance is the only crime that does not include the attempt as a registerable offense. This bill would add the attempted unlawful surveillance to the list of registerable offenses.

A Subdirectory of Level 2 and Level 3 sex offenders is maintained on the DCJS homepage. While SORA was amended in 2006 to authorize DCJS to main- tain information about Level 2 offenders on the subdirectory, law enforcement is not permitted to provide such offenders' actual addresses to the. community. This bill corrects this by allowing law enforcement

to notify entities with vulnerable populations about the exact address of level two offenders.

Budget implications

None.

Effective date

This bill would take effect immediately, provided, however that the amendments to paragraph (e) of subdivision 2 of section 16B-a of the correction law made by section 1 of this act shall apply to persons convicted of an attempt to commit any of the provisions of subdivision two, three or four of section 250.45 of the penal law who committed such offense prior to, on or after the f effective date of this act; except that, with regard to persons who committed such offense prior to the effective date of this act, this act shall only apply to persons who have not completed service of the sentence for such offense prior to such effective date.