In our last post, we discussed how those people convicted of a sex crime in Florida will find themselves subject to a host of stringent and rather onerous requirements, including mandatory registration with local law enforcement officials.
To that end, we started examining how state law mandates that a person must register as either a sexual offender or a sexual predator upon their release, and that this designation depends upon the nature of the underlying offense. In today’s post, we’ll learn a bit more about why this distinction matters when it comes to the sex crime registry.
Sex crime registry: The basics
In general, the law enforcement agency to which all registrants must report is their local sheriff’s office. Here, they must provide the type of information that you would likely expect, including everything from name, date of birth and current address to vehicle registration, phone numbers and employment information.
However, it goes much further than that, as registrants are also required to provide everything from fingerprints, palm prints and photographs to email addresses, passport information and professional license data.
As if this wasn’t alarming enough, consider the following:
- All convicted sexual offenders and sexual predators — including juveniles — will have their information listed on a website maintained by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
- All convicted sexual offenders and sexual predators have only 48 hours to update their identification cards or driver’s licenses after moving or changing their name.
- All convicted sexual offenders and sexual predators must register for their entire lives.
Where the distinction between sexual offenders and sexual predators comes into play as far as registration is concerned is that the majority of those classified as the former will have to register with the county sheriff two times a year, while those classified as the latter — as well as sexual offenders convicted of certain offenses — will have to register with the sheriff four times a year.
We’ll continue this discussion in future posts. In the meantime, give serious consideration to speaking with a skilled legal professional if you have been arrested or are under investigation for any sort of sex crime as your freedom, your reputation and your future are at stake.