The Arkansas Senate Committee on Judiciary approved a bill with an emergency clause that would require the full physical addresses of Level 3 and Level 4 sex offenders to be made public.
House Bill 1004, sponsored by Rep. David Ray, R-Maumelle, passed in a voice vote without audible dissent.
Under current law, only the street names and block numbers of registered sex offenders are published. Ray said Arkansas was one of four states where the full addresses of sex offenders are not made public on the sex offender registry.
"What that looks like in practice is the registry will tell you that there's a Level 3 or Level 4 offender living on the 200 block of Oak Street, for example," Ray said. "But that could be potentially as many as 100 different houses."
For sex offenders living in an apartment complex, he noted there could be hundreds of units covered by the partial addresses currently required by the state.
In Arkansas, sex offenders are classified into four levels. Level 1 is considered low risk, Level 2 is considered moderate risk and Level 3 is considered high risk. A Level 4 sex offender is considered a sexually violent predator.
Scott Bradley, executive director of the Arkansas Sheriff Association, testified in favor of the bill, saying it had the support of sheriffs across the state.
The legislation also has received the support of Attorney General Tim Griffin, according to Ray.
"You can think of many examples of where people would want or need this information," he said. "Say you're taking your kid trick-or-treating, you're a political canvasser going door to door, you're a door-to-door salesman."
Ray did not anticipate his bill would significantly put sex offenders in danger or violate their privacy. He reiterated that 46 states publish the full addresses of sex offenders, and that the Arkansas registry currently features identifying information about sex offenders including the make, model and license plate number of their vehicles.
"There's plenty of instances in our law where people's addresses are already publicly available, whether that's voter registration, property records, deed recordings," he said.
While Ray's bill originally included a provision that would require the publication of employer addresses for sex offenders, he said he removed the language after discussions with business groups.
Sen. Alan Clark, R-Lonsdale, asked how pinning down a sex offender's exact address would help a parent or grandparent who already knew a sex offender lived in their neighborhood.
"We never have a shortage of sex offender bills in this committee, and I just want to be sure that when we enact this bill into law we're doing the right thing," Clark said.
Sen. Mark Johnson, R-Little Rock, who presented the bill alongside Ray, said the legislation originated after Faulkner County Sheriff Tim Ryals learned that parents, shortly after Halloween, wanted more specificity on where sex offenders lived.
John Sarna, with the Central Arkansas ReEntry Coalition, testified against the bill, saying peer-reviewed research showed that sex offenders were unlikely to re-offend. Sarna pointed to a study that cited 279 "vigilante episodes" against sex offenders, many of which ended in murder. Sarna also noted that law enforcement already has the full addresses of sex offenders.
"When you get down to it, this is an appeal from hysteria and fear," he said.
Clark asked if Sarna knew whether instances of vigilantism against sex offenders were more or less common than cases of sex offenders re-offending. Sarna responded that to the best of his knowledge at the moment, vigilante action was more common.
"I think that you need to do some more research," Clark said. "You only mentioned 279 cases, and there is a plethora of sex offenders out there re-offending."
Jerry Bradshaw, director of the Arkansas Division of Community Correction, said the recidivism rate for sex offenders of all levels in Arkansas was around 3%, which is lower than recidivism rates for other types of offenders.
Still, Bradshaw emphasized that Arkansas was in a minority of states that does not require publication of a sex offender's full address. This makes the state "a more attractive place for offenders who have committed sex offenses to want to come to," he said.
Maine and Washington state, like Arkansas, only require the publication of a sex offender's street name and block number. Vermont, Ray said, is the only state that requires less information to be published than Arkansas.