Author: FAC Contributor #9

The Tampa Bay Times has been reporting on the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office for targeting and harassing individuals with a criminal background along with family members living with them.  A follow-up story from the Tampa Bay Times reported that the Pasco County Sheriff’s office was also monitoring public school students who had discipline problems in school.  What is coming next

Patch.com, the money-making group that likes to foster the myth that anyone with a past sex offense is out to harm children, started making changes last year after NARSOL called them out: STOP the Red Dots! Even though Patch continued publishing their maps showing where registrants live in certain communities, they also started sharing research, debunking some myths about registrants.

Kansas has started the conversation about making changes to the registry, but they still have a long way to go. Kansas does not have residency restrictions. The good part of the discussion: The Council of State Governments found that requiring an offender to register did not reduce recidivism. The penalty for failing to register is too strong. There are 423

A senior housing complex is relocating a resident, who had been living there since March, simply because he was found to have a past sex offense from 1983.  This man has not been arrested for any additional crimes since his release from prison in 1991.  I have to wonder if the “sex crime” that sent him to prison is still

An investigator with the St. Paul Police Department has been placed on paid leave after federal judges rebuked her for lying to a grand jury concerning a sex trafficking case.  The investigator also lied during a detention hearing. Prosecutors in St. Paul are now trying to determine what to do with other cases that the investigator was involved with, as

Statistically Speaking Many of you know I am a computer programmer by trade, so statistics and analytics are definitely in my wheel house. Last year, while on the Dr. Phil show I asked an ICAC task force police officer what I felt was an important question. If you are interested in saving children, if that is the reason you run

State Attorney Andrew Warren will chair the Florida Democratic Party’s new Safety and Justice Task Force with a goal of improving safety for Floridians while respecting individuals’ rights.  This task force will also be looking at ways to increase transparency and cut down waste. Florida Action Committee does not take a stand on politics but would like to see all

Our jury system asks jurors to make decisions that have enormous consequences for citizens and their family members.  The tough-on-crime laws of the 1990s, which lengthened many sentences to decades in prison, were sold to Floridians as being for the worst-of-the-worst criminals.  What we have found, though, is that these harsh laws have caught up many people for whom they

People with a past sex offense are required to have their driver’s license branded in some states, and in the states where such laws have been overturned, it has been due to free speech concerns, not privacy. Why is this branding necessary when so much personal information for registrants is already available online for the public? Kansas and at least

Columbia County, Florida temporarily needs a different venue to hold their annual football jamboree, an event relished by the community.  It could be moved to Annie Mattox Park, but allegations surfaced that a person who is forced to register sits on the park board.  The association said they will be looking elsewhere. The cancelation sparked an uproar at Thursday night’s