Bangor Police Chief Randy Harriman has done his homework on community notification for sex offenders. He has provided a plan, to be considered tonight by the City Council, that is thorough and, for the most part, cautious.

No one knows what to do about sex offenders: they can’t be jailed forever; treatment doesn’t seem to work; neighborhoods, largely, wish offenders lived somewhere — anywhere — else. Some states have considered placing sex offenders in mental institutions after they have served their jail time, arguing that they remain mentally abnormal. Maine has yet to have that debate.

Instead, the Legislature has left it to communities to come up with a way of dealing with criminals they have singled out as unique. Not that the state has sent funding equal to the seriousness of the situation — it just passed along the responsibility for dealing with it.

Chief Harriman has proposed five ways of notifying Bangor neighborhoods of both registered sex offenders and high-risk sex offenders on probation. Through a neighborhood notification, police would deliver a printed description of the offender and his address. The school department would be given the same information for all offenders. Police would keep a book containing information on the offenders at the police station. People with automated touch-tone phones could listen to a list of offenders. And the information would be available on an Internet Web page.

It is this last idea that should give the City Council pause. Chief Harriman has said that he is concerned with possible retaliation against the offenders and, at the direction of councilors, drafted a policy that states, “harrassing, threatening or tormenting” the offenders in any way “is a violation of state law. The Bangor Police Department will investigate any illegal activity against these residents … .” That note of caution is just the right tone for the notification, but it is at odds with posting the offenders’ names worldwide on the Internet.

Telling neighbors and schools, the telephone list and keeping an open log at the station admirably covers the intent of the law — to let neighbors know about a potential danger. Adding the Internet tells every kook with a computer the home address of Bangor’s perverts. Hard to see how this helps a neighborhood.

Bangor has a reasonable plan for the difficult job of notification — absent the Internet notice. The council should have no trouble passing a modified version of Chief Harriman’s good work.