Come to Florida on vacation and leave a registered sex offender
By FAC . . . A registered individual goes to Florida on vacation and does the right thing by registering with the Sheriff’s office in the county where he is vacationing, presuming he’ll only be on the registry during the time he is in Florida. WRONG!
Although he is only required to register in his home state for 10 years and eventually is removed at the end of 10 years, he will be on the Florida sex offender registry for life! That’s because Florida, to inflate the registry count, keeps people on its public sex offender registry after they return to their home states, move out of Florida, are deported, or even die!
The purpose of “Megan’s Law” is to inform the public of “dangerous” people in their communities. But what purpose does Florida’s registry serve when the individual is no longer in the community and no longer in the state? Only to create shame for life!
Worse, Florida is perhaps the only state that allows its registry to be indexed by search engines. This means that if you Google your name, your sex offender flyer comes right up. As harmful as this is for registrants in Florida, it’s particularly harmful and unnecessary for registrants who are no longer in the state, who are not on a publicly indexed registry in their own states, or who have been removed from the registry in their home states.
Less than half the people on the Florida sex offender registry are living in Florida communities. Less than half!
Individuals on the Florida registry who are no longer in Florida, coordinated in conjunction with the Florida Action Committee, are looking to bring a lawsuit against the State seeking their removal from the Florida registry. If anyone is interested in participating or contributing to this challenge, please contact legal@floridaactioncommittee.org.
