OK City PD fuels hate and vigilantism against out-of-compliance registrants
Even though police departments have the duty to actively seek those who are violating the law — and this includes those who are out of compliance with their registration requirements — the Oklahoma City Police Department has chosen to do so in an extremely onerous and dangerous way.
They have posted the names and pictures of ten such registrants on their Facebook page, identified them as “THE top 10 most wanted individuals being sought by our Sex Offender Registration Unit” — although research into the records of each person raises more questions than answers about over half of them as to how they made this list — and is offering a reward, not unlike a bounty, for information.
While Crime-Stoppers programs have always offered rewards, the comments that have proliferated on the post show the readers are taking the “bounty” implication seriously. Many comments suggest violence and murder, with several specifically asking if the reward applies “dead or alive.”
Feeling that this post and the allowing of the comments was a dangerous and heinous approach for a law enforcement agency to take, NARSOL issued this press release to media nationally and to police department and governmental officials in Oklahoma City as well as the state of Oklahoma.
