Bill would expand list of sex offenders in Oregon's public database
PORTLAND, Ore. – A proposed law about to go before Oregon lawmakers would expand the number of sex offenders listed on Oregon’s searchable website.
Only a fraction of offenders currently appears on the site, the KATU Investigators learned last year.
Many families type their addresses into the site to find out if any sex offenders live near them, but chances are they click right past the “conditions of use statement” page, which explains in fine print that only sexually violent sex offenders and predatory sex offenders who have the highest risk of re-offending and require the widest range of notification appear.
In Oregon, that’s less than 800 of the 18,000 sex offenders who must register with the state - roughly four percent.
Bridget Sicon, an officer with the Portland Police Bureau’s sex offender registry detail, said the current system can gives families a false sense of security.
“This database only gives you predatory if you’re a citizen,” said Sicon.
She showed us the database that she has access to as a police officer. A search of a one-mile radius around KATU's studio turned up no sex offenders in the civilian database. When Sicon searched the police database, she found 32 sex offenders in the same area. Ordinary families searching the public database would not see those results.
The same pattern shows up across the Portland metro area.
House Bill 2549, now in the Ways and Means Committee in Salem, would overhaul the way Oregon’s sex offenders are categorized by creating three levels of risk.
In doing so, an additional 400 sex offenders would be added to the state’s public website, bringing the total to about 1,200.
Idaho puts 100 percent of its sex offenders on its public website. California lists 75 percent, and Washington puts about 30 percent on its public site.
Sex offender rights advocacy groups believe not listing all sex offenders on the Oregon website protects the privacy of those who committed lower-level crimes and have a very low risk of re-offending.
Until something changes in Oregon, Sicon believes people need to be made aware of the information they’re not getting about the sex offenders who may live around them.
“I talk about it all the time with citizens to try and educate them,” Sicon said.
We ran a search on both the public and police databases for several ZIP codes in the Portland area to compare how many registered offenders show up in each:
| ZIP Code | Number of offenders shown in public database | Number of offenders shown in police database |
| 97030 (Gresham) | 4 | 146 |
| 97205 (SW hills/Goose Hollow) | 7 | 60 |
| 97214 (Inner SE Portland) | 19 | 206 |
| 97232 (Inner NE Portland) | 0 | 32 |
| 97239 (SW hills/Terwilliger) | 1 | 14 |
| 97202 (Sellwood/Eastmoreland) | 1 | 72 |
I have a daughter who was arrested for this crime when she was 14 years old, I took her to the childen services to get some conceling for her and they took her away from me, and sent her to the girls ranch and she was away from home for three years and the time she spent there she and I went through all the programs for sex offending and she passed everyone. she has had to register ever since her eighteen birthday and has never reoffended. she has literly been put through hell. The lawyer that I had gotten for her molested her, and others and got away with out even having to register as a sex offener. Do you think that it's right, that he doesn't have to register, but a 14 year old does.child.  She has gotten her GED, has been going to college. She has had several jobs, but the minute they find out that she has to register she gets fired. She can't get a place to live on her own, she has to have someone help her, because once they see that she has to register, most people won't rent to her. She deserves a second chance.She is a good person who make a bad mistake as a child of 14. I think it's time to let her have a life. Her childern have been gone now for almost 6 years we haven't seen them and they are the only grandchildren I will ever have. I really hope that this bill passes, so she can keep a job, a home and have a life.
For all you who only let the news corrupt your mind...there is a reason why registries only list predators. Thousands of offenders of low level crimes who are good people providing for themselves and their families, who get put on these public registries due to news stories like this pushing public policy with fear tactics, get ran out of their communities, jobs, churches, and in few instances assaulted and murdered. Everyone deserves to have a chance to make a change in their life, don't you also? Instead you want to publicize anyone who committed a sex crime because media has taught you well to be fearful even of the guy who 30 years ago slept with an underage girl at a party, or who had sex with his wife while she slept, or was pissing in the alley even. The state and national registries have proven no benefit for recidivism, and in my opinion have probably contributed to reoffending. Take a law abiding citizen who made a mistake, make it hard almost impossible for him to find a residence, work, and simply live, what do you think is going to happen? Sex offenders have the smallest percentage of reoffending out of any crime class, about 5%. Would you care if you had someone convicted of manslaughter or kidnapping next to your home? No one talks about registering them. Millions of your tax dollars are spent on officers like Bridget Sicon above for something that hasn't proved beneficial and is ineffective in many ways. Don't be a tool of the media.
@NatSp Well said! This is ridiculous. Any sources to sex offender advocacy groups would be helpful, so I can help!
For those with pitch forks and torches you need to understand that all of the people described as "low priority" aren't pedophiles but were doing something else that is a "qualifying offence" to be put on the registry.
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The lowest level offenders are rarely repeat. Indeed as a parent I find the fact that only those caught and convicted are on the registry. Being as that about 60% are, you can see that there are likely more people NOT already on that registry that are dangerous to your child than who are.
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I think a better idea is to narrow down who is required to be on the registry. We have made so many offences forced to be on it that it dilutes the real meaning of the registry and the purpose of it.
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For example a 35 year old person who actually rapes a child and an 18 year old who can consensual sex with a 16 year old are both guilty in the same exact way. They both can be convicted of the same crime, both serve the same sentence and both be required to be on the registry in the same way.
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What we need to do is narrow down the requirements of being on the list. A person exposing themselves, sure, a person peeing in public, maybe not. A person who rapes a person, yes, a person who is marginally in the majority with a person marginally in the minority? Maybe not.
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Right now we throw them all into the same pool, then try and sift through them after we have thrown them all away.
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Some may not deserve a second chance, some should. Some should be the very pariah we make of them, others should not. Putting them all out there for such scorn will mean too many people to hate to focus on the ones who are really scary, and putting people who otherwise just made a foolish choice lumped in with the truly evil that are out there.
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If we want the registry to mean anything, we should look at who is on it and clean up the requirements to make the list mean something.
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If we instead go the other way, we will all eventually be on the list for SOMETHING and then it will mean nothing.
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Pedophiles DO NOT change. This was just in the news. So, society must look out for the little ones who cannot defend themselves.Â
 @Lei22 Yes, there are pedophiles who require either lengthy imprisonment, lifelong supervision, and/or constant vigilance from law enforcement. This is where public notification can serve a purpose, and why Oregon has always included such individuals on its public website.  But let's be careful not to label all offenders as pedophiles; many people who end up in the registry are capable of change, and I don't see any benefit to watering down the public database with the addition of hundreds convicted of lesser crimes and making it easier for the predatory offenders to get lost in the mix. Â
Thank you for the great reporting. This is very interesting. And could help families when they are relocating. Not to mention alert neighbors to the pedophiles around them.Â
When do we start listing murderers, thieves, violent individuals who are likely to re-offend?
True. They should ALL be listed.Â
I'm trying to decide what's worse: the perverts? or the ones constantly checking up on them?
Apparently, you don't understand how much victims can suffer.Â
@Lei22 You are wrong about that, I have been a victim since the age of 9 and as an adult and my stepfather got away with it, but you can go with your life,  exspecially if you have god in it. It is hard, but it can be done.Â
 @Lei22Â
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Maybe if that is the case, those who suffer should not be trolling the Internet looking at who is guilty of what.
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I know many who were victimized as children who spend no time looking at who is on the registry.
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Trusting it to tell you who to be afraid of is foolish. If you meet someone not on the registry does it mean you should let you guard down? If you meet someone who is are they going to rape you right now?
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The registry information is only useful to find out if the weirdo who sits in the park and witches kids play without having one has molested a child in the past. Call the cops, get them removed.
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Surfing the web looking from criminals to be a victim is just looking to be a victim.
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only sexually violent sex offenders and predatory sex offenders are level 3 in washington state but they also have a level 2 which are most likely to reoffend and the public should keep an eye on them are searchable. Most level 1 offenders never reoffend. if they do they go to jail and come out a level 2 or 3. even your child could become a sex offender if they turn 18 but their boy or girl friend is still under 18. if an undercover cop is at a strip club and you touch a dancer you get arrested and become a sex offender or if she touches  you both can be arrested and become sex offenders. getting arrested for any kind of sex in public  can will get you a sex offender status. i think only level 2 and 3 should have to report to police their address changes and be in the public data searchable data base.
 @32jim2 I agree. Urinating in public can also be a sex offense if someone sees you.
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There are so many people who technically are offenders yet the average person wouldn't see them as a danger. I know people who are now 40 and 50 who at 18 had a 15 yo girlfriend. These men have no interest in young girls now and lead a normal life besides the fact that many of them are felons because of their so called sex offense. I don't want to see their names in a public data base. I don't think it is anyone's business.
I did not know this.........Thank You for the Info.....
No. I think that registration laws of any type are the same as the ones used in Nazi Germany and are completely unconstitutional and should be abolished.
Please. You won't feel that way once you become a parent.
As long as it includes past governors i'm all for it!
bridget scion needs to get a life and stop trying to instill the fear of that which doesn't exist into the minds of the public. how much more nannyism do we need in portland! please. you're making things worse instead of better! stop punishing people for that which they might do, but haven't and probably will never do! isn't there something more productive legislation that you could busy yourself with?!?! i for one don't want to pay into a system that wastes resources and believes in further complicating peoples lives who make mistakes that hurt themselves more than anyone else by punishing and then re-punishing them again and again needless. if a guy pulls it out and pees in the bushes and someone happens to see him and report it to the authorities, does he really deserve to be listed w/ those who violently rape and truly sexually abuse others? or for that matter the 19 yr old who falls in love w/ a 16 yr old and has sex w/ him/her and someone seeks revenge and reports them. they do time and then you seek to publicly humiliate them for the rest of their lives by grouping them as people who do taboo things. even those that get caught for watching child porn who have never and most likely would never act out on the fantasy of watching it, in my opinion don't deserve to be blacklisted for the rest of their lives. i want to live in a society that brings people together, not one who maneuvers things legally to continuing divide us. grow up people making the rules. we need less of your wasteful ignorant rules and witch hunting. please!
Pedophiles are dangerous. Little children should be protected. End of story.Â
@saabstory let me guess you got caught peeing in the bushes?
I understand some people make bad decisions and regret them and live as good as they can and will never hurt others again.....we all need forgiveness...
Pedophiles never change. This was just in the news. Forgiving doesn't help.Â
This man was not on the list even after being arrested and convicted for not registering in Oregon Before raping and Killing this poor woman...what IF she had known thru the List he was dangerous ? he was not posted at that time ..I checked when it happened !!!     http://www.katu.com/news/local/Police-make-arrest-in-Belmont-Street-apartment-murder-163142786.html .....The list is almost useless ....even with the upgrade at 1200 of the total 18,000.....
Sex offender rights advocacy? these animals have no rights they gave them up when they commited these crimes.
educate yourself a little more before you go bashing people whom are mostly likely less "animal" than yourself. please.Â
@saabstory these ANIMALS pray on their fellow human beings. and just how should i educate myself? I have NEVER attacked another human being in my life. These creatures did and were CONVICTED of what to me is the most heinous of crimes. So please tell me why i should think that they deserve anything other than my complete contempt?
@Jeremy The guy that pisses in the street, the 18/17-16 relationship...these are often lifetime sex offenders, these are the ones that would be added to the public list, these are the ones that need advocates.
@saabstory Now you see you jumped to a whole lot of conclusions when you went off on my first post. The animals i refer to are the violent predators and anyone that molests children. I was not even talking about the guy that takes a leak in the street him i could care less about hand him a public indecency ticket and move on. The 18/16 relationship yeah thats bogus as well lets face it 90% of all 18 YO males would have sex with a willing 16YO girl given the chance. And I am all for making prostitution legal so next time before you climb on your high horse how about you ask me to clarify my statement. We actually aggree on alot of these points.
 @Jeremy  @saabstory because many of the people convicted as "sex offenders" did nothing more than have sex w/ someone they love who happened to be a couple years younger than them  for example. i'm all for locking up violent  offenders who brutally rape and sexually assault those who did not consent. sure. make public a list of who they are and keep monitoring them if you set them free. but make sure 1) you're convicting the right person and not just trying to make a name for yourself by drawing hysteria to taboo acts and locking up innocent people ( case in point "central park five". educate yourself and see the movie! ) and 2) don't waste your time and tax payer's $'s convicting those who consent to sex w/ others, no matter how taboo the sex act /or age of the participants, i.e. prostitution ( which should be completely legal and honored as a profession if we are to ever grow up and accept ourselves as sexual beings ). as for this contempt of which you seem so hell bent on, may i suggest you question authority and those who seek to group together all persons, places and things they deem taboo. the real problem is our unwillingness as a society to try and understand anyone or thing outside the "norm" / status quo. and one last word of suggestion to you. i imagine that you are a male and would caution you to make sure you never have the urge to pee in public at any point, because that mr  "jeremy" could potentially get you yourself on that public sex offender registry due to someone finding it offensive and it being illegal.
There is no such thing as low-risk. If they were low-risk, they'd never have offended in the first place!
 @starshadow So the guy who pees in public is likely to attack your children or you? Most sex offenders are not rapists and predators. Most sex offenders have been 18 with a 15 yo girl friend, peed in public, had sex with a consenting adult but did so in a more public place maybe even their back yard, picked up a hooker, and a bunch of other stuff that most people wouldn't really consider a sex offense.Â
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By the law, if you have ever peed outside, even in the woods, then you could have been arrested as a sex offender. So there really are many low risk sex offenders. Do not lump those people in with violent predators.
 @starshadow There are people who make mistakes (often as juveniles), and there are habitual criminals.  There IS a difference... Some are more likely to reoffend than others.  I for one want our tax dollars to support sensible laws and effective law enforcement that target the most dangerous and repeat offenders.
An observation.... Â The notice explaining the inclusion of those designated as "predatory" is clearly stated on the Sex Offender Inquiry System website's Conditions of Use Statement, directly above the conditions agreement button. Â It is NOT in fine print, as the author indicates. Â Hmmm...
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http://sexoffenders.oregon.gov/
So the kids , who at 10 years of age , touched someone wrong, and are considered a sex offender, and maybe 20 30 years later they haven't re offended, but still registered. What does that do to their lives? Neighbors see sex offender and do not ask questions. ( I did some counseling) I think this list needs to address predators, and not all who are on this list for a lifetime
 @mj Stop being rational. This is for the children.
 @mj Correct, people that commit adult or child murders, kidnappers, drug dealers to name a few don't register.  How many neighbors are in your 1 mile radius committed a violent crime other than a sex offense?  You will never know.  A former axe murderer next door is not a threat to you?  Just don't pi-s him off.
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 @mj Well stated, mj.  Unfortunately, the media loves to focus on the truly heinous crimes, and so it's not surprising that the public often equates the term "sex offender" with someone who's truly a dangerous and/or violent predator.  Rarely do we hear about the hundredsââor thousandsââwho make a mistake, assume responsibility, get help, fulfill their sentencing obligations, and get on with their lives as responsible and productive citizens. Â
There is a reason why Oregon hides their Sexual Predators....There is something to gain for doing so....On this website
  http://www.familywatchdog.us/OffenderCountByState.asp  Oregon only has 190 sexual predators per million...But Oregon has approx 3.9 million people to 18,000 unpublished sexual predators or 4,615 per million people.......Second in the Nation behind Deleware ......Does anyone know why ?
 @Glenn Pierce Glenn, not all of Oregon's registered offenders are predatory.  Certainly, there are some very dangerous individuals who warrant life-long monitoring, but there are also many convicted of lesser sex crimes who are actually less likely to recidivate than those convicted of other types of crimes.  It's akin to creating a registry for "drug offenders," and arguing that someone found guilty of a misdemeanor for marijuana possession 20 years ago is the same as a meth manufacturer and distributor who also has a lengthy criminal history.Â
Please explain how some Sex Offenders are not Predatory....of course the 20yr old dating a 17yr old would not ....and this does happen alot and should be handled separetly....
 @Glenn Pierce Predators don't know their victims, they plan and stalk for the right time and includes violence.  Most all others involved uncle Bill squeezing niece Beckie's boob in the home, and Beckie telling mom.  The acts of the lowest level never involve any violence.Â
Oregonâs sex offender registry does provide a false sense of security; however, the chief issue here is not necessarily the exclusion of low-risk offenders from the public database, but rather the idea that registrant information posted on a website will safeguard the public. Iâm not aware of any caseââin Oregon or elsewhereââwhere the registry has actually proven to prevent the occurrence of a sex crime. Whatâs more, the majority of new offenses are committed by persons who are not registered sex offenders. Itâs also a fact that in most cases the perpetrator knows the victim through his/her association as a family member, or family friend or acquaintance. Statistically speaking, the threat of abuse within the home is much greater than the âstranger dangerâ sensationalized in the press (KATU included). If Oregon is to continue with its website, letâs limit public accessibilityââand focus our law enforcement dollarsââto those who truly pose a societal threat.Â
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What Canzano fails to mention here is that lawmakers in some states recognize the registryâs inefficacy and have either introduced or passed legislation that grants certain ex-offenders registration relief. History shows us time and time again that public shaming rarely, if ever, accomplishes anything positive.  Â
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what is up with Portland?.. they are starting to sound like the sexbarn Florida of the north
Bringing the total to 1,200 is NOTHING ....with 16,800 still untrackable by the public of the 18,000 Registered Sexual Offenders..........Oregon shows a WOPPING 4.4 % of Sexual Predators and will increase it to 6.66% if its Passed !!!!.......Compaired to surrounding States at 30%, 75%, 100%.........Im impressed !!!!
Not every SEX OFFENDING SICKO is caught & convicted...
In Mississippi they Post Every Last One of them on thier Wedsite.....
 @Glenn Pierce I'm not against posting the names of sex offenders, but, if you want my buy in, NEVER start your argument with, "In Mississippe...,"
 @Glenn Pierce As does WA, but OR has become so Liberal that I doubt it will happen since the ACLU lives there.
 @boned  @Glenn Pierce Actually pig boy, it says above that Wa only lists 30%.
@dboon4 .......pig boy? Very nice ! Grow up !!!!
 @Glenn Pierce And how does that cut down on sex offenses?
 @Riley35 Let me guess, you are a die-hard Donkey and you need to live on your side of the river while the rest of us would like to know,OK?Â
 @boned But good job on making yourself sound just about as ignorant as you could.
 @boned I'm actually a Republican, and I'm also realistic about how Meghan's Law has been ineffective in curtailing sex offenses.Â