2,000 sex offenders unregistered in state

BANGOR – Now that the Monday deadline has passed, Maine Department of Public Safety officials still looked to register about 2,000 convicted sex offenders, according to a department spokesman.

“We’ll regroup to see if there’s a better way to track these people down,” public safety spokesman Stephen McCausland said Sunday.

The renewed call for sex offenders to register with the Maine State Bureau of Identification comes as a result of changes to state law that took effect Sept. 1.

The new laws, passed by the Legislature in 1999 and 2000, expanded the number of crimes for which someone must register and made the law retroactive to 1992.

Because of the changes, the state’s sex offender registry was expected to grow from 1,200 to between 3,000 and 4,000 names, McCausland said.

But completing the list has been a challenge for the department, which doesn’t have current addresses for many of those newly required to register.

McCausland said Sunday that authorities expect, in time, to make contact with those yet to register through a combination of voluntary compliance, employment background checks, and probation violations.

Since the state’s initial push to register the newly eligible offenders, Bangor police have received about a dozen inquiries from people wondering if they are required to register, according to Sgt. Mark Hathaway.

“Chances are, if you think you have to, you probably do,” he said.

In Bangor, there are 43 people in the registry.

Those interested in viewing their communities’ registries can do so at their local police departments.

Maine law does not require neighborhood notification if a sex offender moves into the area, instead leaving it to the discretion of local law enforcement.

In Bangor, police go door-to-door to notify neighbors within a block of where a registered sex offender lives, Hathaway said.

Under the new law, those convicted of the following crimes between 1992 and 1999 must register with the state: gross sexual assault with a victim less than 18 years old; gross sexual assault as a sexually violent crime; sexual exploitation of a minor; sexual abuse of minors; unlawful sexual contact; visual sexual aggression against a child; sexual misconduct with a child less than 14 years old; criminal restraint; violation of privacy; incest; aggravated promotion of prostitution; and patronizing prostitution of a minor.

People convicted of one of those crimes will be classified either as a “sexual offender,” who will be placed on the registry for 10 years, or as a “sexually violent predator,” who will be on the list for life.

Those required to register must do so each year at a cost of $25. They also must notify police any time they change address. Those considered “sexually violent predators” must register every 90 days.Failure to register is a misdemeanor. A second violation makes it a felony.

While the deadline for registration officially has passed, McCausland said state authorities – at least for the time being – are more interested in completing the list than prosecuting latecomers.

“If they come in this week, we’ll register them and that will be the end of it,” he said.

For more information, call the Maine State Bureau of Identification in Augusta at 624-7009.