Law releases data on Arkansas sex offenders

September 2, 2003


LITTLE ROCK - Personal information on all of the state's 1,131 high-risk sex offenders became public Monday under a new state law, and the information will be posted on the Internet.

Richard Thompson, a supervisor for the Arkansas Crime Information Center's Web site, said the data would likely be online next week even though the center has until Jan. 1 to complete the work. Offenders' names, addresses, photographs and crimes will be available.

Users will be able to search for offenders by name, city, county, gender and race.

Civil libertarians argue that states posting offenders' personal data causes humiliation and harassment after they've served their sentence, a form of double punishment.

But in March, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the legality of similar sites in Alaska and Connecticut, saying they were regulatory instead of punitive. The court also said the public's right to know outweighs any loss of privacy by the offender.

The law also prohibits sex offenders from living near a day care or school.

- The Associated Press

Since Arkansas categorizes SOs, do the retrictions/notifications vary by category? Anyone know?

Hmmm, that's a good question. One would think so (that they would vary)... but due to the first paragraph of the news item, I would lean toward assuming they are going to publish the same information for everyone no matter what their category.

I didn't know Arkansas had different categories - but since they do then I feel they should have some variations on what is published! Maybe someone else knows more about this...

Found out, Arkansas SOs are assigned levels 1, 2, 3, or 4. Restrictions on living near schools/daycares/churches with daycares apply to level 3 or 4 offenders. Also level 3 or 4 offenders will have their picture, address, and all kinds of personal info displayed on the internet