The names of thousands of New York State sex offenders are due to come off a public registry, prompting demands for a change in the law.
State law requiring Level 1 offenders to report their whereabouts to the registy for a 20-year period was up Jan. 1, News 12 Long Island reports. The law took effect in 1996.
Laura Ahearn of the Long Island advocacy group Parents of Megan’s Law told the station about 60 to 70 Level 1 sex offenders in Nassau and Suffolk alone will come off the registry this year.
“We have a stack of Level 1 offenders that have committed serious offenses against young children — as young as 2 years old — and they are going to be dropping off that registry,” Ahearn told CBS New York.
The Level 1 designation can include child molestation, rape in the first degree and sodomy, according to the station.
Level 2 and Level 3 sex offenders are required to register for life.
The registry is publicly accessible online.
Long Island Republican Dean Murray has introduced a bill in the Assembly that would extend the 20-year requirement to 30 years.
But he told News 12 that he needs a Democratic sponsor in the Democrat-controlled chamber to get the bill passed.
“I don’t know if this is a leadership issue, or what it is, but I’m continuing to push very hard,” Ahearn told News 12.
