FORT WAYNE, IN (Indiana's NewsCenter) --- Indiana's attorney general says a uniform computer system would aid Hoosier officials in the big task of removing hundreds of names from the state's sex offender registry list.
The job has to be done, because of an Indiana Supreme Court ruling in 2009.
Indiana's high court last year agreed with attorneys for Richard Wallace, who argued the one-time child molester should not have to register as a sex offender in Indiana, because the list wasn't even in existence in the 19-80's when he committed his crimes.
The ruling said that the current provision violates the prohibition on “ex post facto” laws in the Indiana Constitution.
The decision impacts somewhere around two-thousand offenders statewide.
Almost 300 in Allen County alone have already been stripped off the registry because of the 2009 decision.
Attorney General Greg Zoeller told Indiana’s NewsCenter, he will help set up an administrative procedure to remove names that no longer belong.
We asked officer Jeff Shimkus, the sex offender registry coordinator for Allen County, if public protection from sexual predators will suffer under this change.
Cpl. Jeff Shimkus/Allen County Police Dept.: "I still say use the registry, find out who's living in your neighborhood, don't trick or treat at their houses, obviously, don't have your kids spend the night at their houses, but the main thing is don't think that you're safe because the person is not on the registry. You still have to do the research, figure out who this person is."
Shimkus says there may be dozens of people in Allen County who pose a safety threat to children or others, who’ve never committed a crime, and thus wouldn’t be on the list anyway.
Attorney General Zoeller says it may take close to a year to get the statewide registry updated to reflect the recent court ruling.
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