Rep. Jackie Speier Pushes Bill Closing Loophole For Convicted Sex Offenders In The Military
REDWOOD CITY (KCBS) -- Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-San Mateo) has introduced a bipartisan bill that would require the Department of Defense to publish the names of convicted sex offenders in the nation's military and eliminate an existing loophole allowing them to exempt themselves from being registered as such.
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Speier along with Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colorado) wants to close what she calls a "gaping loophole" and the two introduced the Military Track, Register and Alert Communities Act in Washington, D.C. last week to do just that.
In the civilian world, before being released from prison, convicted sex offenders must provide DNA and fingerprints and they as they are entered into the national sex offender registry. But once former military member serve their prison time and are discharged, it's left up to them to notify their state to do so—a sort of honor system.
"There is no requirement to do anything once you've served your time in the military; so literally, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of sex predators, sex offenders who are in our communities who have never registered," Speier said.
The Act would require the DOD to create its own sex offender registry along with a publically-available website. It would also require the department to register sex offenders before they are released from prison—just like civilian courts.
The issue was uncovered by a Scripps News investigation last November in which a review of 1,321 cases found that nearly 250 military offenders convicted of crimes such as rape and child molestation did not appear on a single public registry.
Speier said she was optimistic about the moving the bill forward.
"It will be put into the National Defense Authorization Act as it moves through the process so hopefully we'll get it into that bill this year. It absolutely is indefensible on any level," she said.
