Politics & Government

Your Take: Should the 'Dangerous Weapon Offender Registry' Be Open To The Public?

Most of the information on the registry would come from documents that are available to the public under the FOI law.

This article was posted by Erin Quinlan. It was reported and written by Senior Regional Editor Elissa Bass.

Last week, when the General Assembly passed and the governor signed Connecticut’s new gun laws, it included a provision that the state would create a  first-in-the-nation "dangerous weapon offender registry" that will list the names and addresses of those convicted of weapons-related offenses for five years after their release from prison. Under the law:

  • Starting Jan. 1, the state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection will be required to maintain a list of every person convicted of a deadly-weapon offense.
  • Offenders will register with the department within two weeks of their release into the community from prison or court adjudication. They would have to provide their name, address, criminal history, email and fingerprints, and they would have notify DESPP promptly of any address changes.
  • Once a year for five years, they will have to check in with their local police to verify their status — or, if there's no local department, they would have to check in with the state police troop that covers their hometown.

The caveat is the list will not be available to the public — as the sex offender registry is — but rather only to law enforcement.

The Hartford Courant reports that J. Herbert Smith, president of the Connecticut Council on Freedom of Information, opposes the secrecy aspect of the law. Smith said the information will come from already public documents including records of the offenders' arrests by police, their convictions in court, sentences meted out by judges, and a Department of Correction official website that says where they are incarcerated and when they're scheduled to get out.

What’s your take? Are you favor of such a list? And if so, should it be public information? Leave your thoughts in the comments.


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