A new bill proposed by the Iowa Legislature seeks to put the Iowa sex offender registry on the Internet.

The registry, which was created to keep track of criminals who have been convicted of sexually related crimes, has been used for years to inform citizens when high-risk offenders move into their neighborhoods.

Local law enforcement agencies say they would be in full support of having the registry put on the Internet.

“We’ve already bought into the process of making sex offenders public knowledge, so if they can find a way to put it on the Internet, I think it’s great,” said Ames Police Chief Dennis Ballantine.

Loras Jaeger, director of the Department of Public Safety, said he favors making the registry readily available to everyone.

“I certainly think that there has got to be caution with serious sex offenders,” he said. “There’s a strong movement in Iowa that citizens be notified when a serious sex offender is in their area. I think that is very important.”

Jaeger said using the Internet is a good application of the registry.

“The Web is just another outlet for that process and is a good idea,” he said.

Ballantine said his department currently has a sex offender registry available for the public to use.

“We already keep a sex offender registry here which anyone can come in and take a look at,” he said. “But they have to first have an identifier for the person they want to look up.”

The list contains names of serious offenders, to whom police give special attention, Ballantine said.

“There’s an evaluation form that [Department of Criminal Investigation] does to find out if an offender is going to be a problem in the future,” he said. “If their point total on the evaluation reaches a certain level, then they are labeled high-risk, and we are required to notify the community.”

Ballantine said the Ames Police Department distributes information about the high-risk sex offenders in areas with high concentrations of youth, such as schools, local high school hang-outs and libraries.

“For those people, we go to the appropriate places and hand out pictures to make sure people are aware of these offenders,” he said.

Although Jaeger does not oppose posting the registry on the Internet, he said he does have some concerns with the sex offender registry process as a whole.

“I also support the right of anyone not to be harassed for their prior criminal activities after they are released from prison,” he said. “It is a delicate balancing act between the rights of citizens to know when a serious sex offender is living in their area and the right of that offender to live a law-abiding life without being subjected to harassment.”

However, Jaeger said he didn’t think the rights of any sex offenders were being stifled by the state’s registry. “I think the state is being very careful with who they label high-risk,” he said. “They are acting in a responsible manner.”