Information on convicted sex offenders who have been deemed
predators by the court system is now more accessible to the general
public because of a move made by the state police for the benefit
of public safety.

“This information is to prevent crime,” explained Lt. Janet
McNeal, commander of the Pennsylvania State Police Megan’s Law
Unit, which operates the Megan’s Law offender registrant Web
site.

A recent case in Maine where two men were killed after being
tracked down from their listings on a sex offender registry has
created some questions about negative consequences of the
listings.

However, McNeal said the good done by the Web sites far
outweighs the few negative impacts that have come about.

“It’s unfortunate and tragic when anyone misuses the information
on the site,” she said. “It detracts from the entire reason Megan’s
Law exists – to prevent crime.

“Just on our Web site in the year of 2005, we had something like
2.8 million visitors to the site,” she said, adding that “isolated
incidents” should not be used to attack the sites.

“We actually had someone call and say ‘The man I’m living with
is on your site. Why? He baby-sits my 8 and 10-year-olds. Should I
be concerned?’,” McNeal said. “The value of putting that
information out there is a wonderful crime prevention tool.”

While the Megan’s Law site for Pennsylvania has been public
since 2002 and was expanded in 2005, a more recent change now
allows users to search for those offenders defined as sexually
violent predators.

By statute, a sexually violent predator is defined as a person
who has been convicted of a sexually violent offense and who is
determined to be a predator due to “a mental abnormality or
personality disorder that makes the person likely to engage in
predatory sexually violent offenses.”

McKean County First Assistant District Attorney Christa Schott
explained the designation of sexually violent predator is first
determined by the state Sexual Offender Assessment Board, which is
made up of specialists appointed by the governor.

“Then our office has to request a hearing to have that person
declared a predator,” she explained. The judge of the Court of
Common Pleas will hear the evidence and determine if the person
fits the criteria that are set forth in the statute.

Currently on the Megan’s Law Web site, there are two sexually
violent predators and 52 sex offenders listed as residing in McKean
County.

“I really have mixed emotions” as to whether the ability to
search for predators is a good thing, McNeal said. “It will readily
identify those who the court have designated as sexually violent
predators.

“The downside is that people would just search SVPs and overlook
the threat of the other offenders,” she said, adding other
offenders on the Web site may be considered “a high threat to the
community” as well, but don’t fit the criteria of a predator.

“We consider them all a threat to the community,” McNeal
said.

She encouraged anyone using the site to call the toll-free
number of they believe they’ve found an error on the site, or know
someone who should be listed and is not.

“We investigate every one of them,” she said. “It’s a massive
job.”

Generally, offenders do not register with the state police until
their release from incarceration. In some circumstances, an
imprisoned offender will be listed on the registry because he or
she was already on the registry, committed another offense and was
“upgraded” to a sexually violent predator.