MVD shares records with DPS to track sex offenders
What the new law does: Requires the Motor Vehicle Division to provide daily updates to the Department of Public Safety disclosing address changes filed by the state’s registered sex offenders. The law includes additional provisions to further enhance sex offender tracking.
A new law that took effect Sept. 21 requires the Motor Vehicle Division to send daily updates to the Department of Public Safety containing address changes for Arizona’s registered sex offenders.
The change and others designed to strengthen sex offender monitoring stem from S1230 (Chapter 160), a bill that passed 25-2 in the Senate and 46-0 in the House before being signed into law by Gov. Janet Napolitano on April 17.
“The idea was to enable quick tracking,” said Sen. John Huppenthal, a Chandler Republican, the bill’s sponsor.
“We should have the most accurate records possible for our sex offenders so that anytime DPS is investigating a crime, they have data readily available,” he said.
Brian Wilcox, the DPS government liaison, said discrepancies between his agency’s records and information in daily updates from MVD would be immediately investigated.
“If we got a report of a sex offender at a new address other than the one that had previously been listed for them, that would set up a red flag and we’d start looking to verify where that person is,” he said.
In addition to authorizing cooperation between the two agencies, S1230 adjusts statute so registered sex offenders face a class 6 felony instead of a class 1 misdemeanor if they fail to annually update their photograph and address with the Motor Vehicle Division.
The lawl also requires sex offenders to affix or sign an electronic fingerprint to a previously-mandated statement required by the DPS.
The statement includes all names by which the person is known, their address and the physical location of the person’s residence and post office box.
Persons from other jurisdictions who register as sex offenders in Arizona are also required to provide blood or other bodily samples for DNA testing.
Huppenthal, who is from Chandler and represents District 20, said he has a group of about 50 advisers who help guide his legislative decision-making and that they recommended the idea for S1230.
He said he is happy to see his bills become law but that individually they merely represent small parts of a larger effort.
“Piece by piece you just try to make the whole system work better and make people safer,” he said.