BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
1204 (Runner)
Hearing Date: 05/10/2010 Amended: 05/06/2010
Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-HernandezPolicy Vote: Public Safety
7-0
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BILL SUMMARY: This bill requires all registered sex offenders to
provide to provide all of their email addresses, online
addresses, and instant messaging user names to the local law
enforcement agencies no later than December 31, 2011, and,
thereafter, at the time of original registration and within 30
days of establishing a new online account. Failure to register
this information would be punishable as a misdemeanor.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 Fund
Register new information **Potentially minor local costs;
unlikely to Local
with local law enforcement be considered a reimbursable
mandate**
New misdemeanor **Unknown, non-reimbursable local
costs** Local
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STAFF COMMENTS:
Existing law generally requires a person convicted of
statutorily enumerated sex offenses to register within five
working days of coming into a city or county, with law
enforcement officials, as specified. (Pen. Code 290.)
Registration generally must be updated annually, within five
working days of a registrant's birthday. In some instances,
registration must be updated once every 30 or 90 days, as
specified.
Current law requires registrants to provide the following
information: 1) a signed statement giving information as
required by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and giving the name
and address of the person's employer and place of employment; 2)
the fingerprints and a current photograph of the person taken by
the registering official; 3) the license plate number of any
vehicle owned by, regularly driven by, or registered in the name
of the person; and 4) copies of adequate proof of residence, as
specified.
This bill would require registrants to provide their email
addresses, online addresses, and instant messaging user names to
law enforcement, as well. This bill would also require that
registrants update this information when it changes, just as
they would update their physical addresses upon moving or their
vehicle information when it changes. There are approximately
63,000 registered sex offenders on the Megan's Law website, and
it is not known how many of them have email addresses or other
online accounts. This bill does not require a local law
enforcement agency receiving the information to transmit it to
DOJ, but provides that if DOJ or another law enforcement agency
requests the information, it may be shared.
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SB 1204 (Runner)
This bill is not likely to constitute a reimbursable mandate,
because it does not require an increased level of service. Local
law enforcement is already required to process registry
information, which varies depending on individual circumstances
(such as the
number of jobs a registrant works, or cars the registrant owns).
Thus, as the information varies, the time it takes to process a
registry update varies. Local law enforcement must currently
make as many registry changes as there are address, job, or
driving changes reported to the agency, in additional to annual
updates. The number of changes varies by locale and by year, and
all of the registry changes in current law involve additional
steps in conjunction with DOJ (which is not required by this
bill).
Collecting electronic identity information could be incorporated
into the registrant's statement of other personal information at
the next regular registration update. This bill provides that
the first reposting must occur by December 31, 2011, which gives
a full calendar year to collect the information. Since
registered sex offenders are required to update their registry
information at least annually, registrants will have to update
their information at some point between the enactment of the
bill and its deadline. Even if the provisions of this bill were
determined to constitute a new mandate, it is very unlikely to
reach the Suspense threshold of $50,000 General Fund.
This bill also creates a new misdemeanor for failing to register
this information with local law enforcement. Creation of a new
misdemeanor is not a reimbursable local mandate.