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<br />. <br /> <br />COMMUNITY NOTIFICATION <br /> <br />Minnesota Department of Corrections <br />Community ami Juvenile Services Division <br />Sex Offender/Chemical DependeJIC)' Services Unit <br /> <br />HISTORY: <br />In October of 1989 an eleven-year-old boy was abducted at gunpoint in the small rural community of <br />S1. Joseph, Minnesota This young man, Jacob Wetterling, is still missing. As the result of his abduction <br />and the enormous search effort that followed, the inability oflaw enforcement to quickly refer to a list of <br />. known offenders became a problem known to the Wetterling faruily and others in the community. There <br />was no list, or database, of all sexual offenders in Minnesota, and such a list was only in existence in a <br />few other states, and certainly not current, comprehensive lists. <br /> <br />The Wetteriing faruily started a not- for-profit foundation, and through this foundation and significant <br />personal effort, lobbied the Minnesota Legislature to pass the "Predatory Offender Registration Act <br />(Minnesota Statutes 243.166)" in 1991. This law required certain offenders to register their addresses <br />with law enforcement, and allowed the list to be created that law enforcement had so desperately <br />needed in the Wetterling case and in other abduction and sex-crime cases. In 1994 the U.S. Congress <br />passed the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children Act, which required registratioo of these <br />offenders in all 50 states. <br /> <br />Since July 1, 1991, sex offenders in Minnesota have been required to register their addresses with local <br />law enforcement agencies. Those agencies forward the information to the Minnesota Bureau of <br />Criminal Apprehension (BCA), the statevvide investigative law enforcement agency. The BCA maintains <br />information about these individuals in a database that can be accessed by law enforcement agencies. <br />This information was intended for use by law enforcement when investigating a crime, and was not <br />available to the public in any form prior to January I, 1997. <br /> <br />The nature of the intended use allowed these data to include offenders who had been charged with a sex <br />offense, convicted of another offense arising out of the same set of circumstances, but not convicted of <br />the sex offense. Infonnation is also collected on juveniles who have been adjudicated of a registration <br />eligible oflense, although juvenile information is not released to the public. Law enforcement continued <br />to contribute offender information to this database, and has used the infonnation as an investigative tool <br />since July 1, 1991. <br /> <br />In 1994 Megan Kanka was abducted and murdered by a convicted sex offender who had been <br />released from prison and resided across the street from Megan's Parents. He had invited the little girl <br />into his home to see a "new puppy." The New Jersey Legislature quickly passed the original "Megan's <br />Law," a community notification law directed at sex offenders released into the community. The New <br />Jersey Supreme Court acted just as quickly and suspended the law lIDtil safeguards for the community <br />and the offenders were put into place. <br /> <br />1 <br />