Sex offenders: How much do we need to know?

There's a scary amount of information about all of us out on the Internet. "Google" youself, and click through a few links, and you'll be amazed what might show up.

Web surfing turns into something more serious, however, when our safety and that of our family is involved.

But how much do we need to know to be safe? And where is the border between our right to know and other people's privacy?

It's tempting, when the other people are convicted sex offenders, to let their civil liberties fall by the wayside. That's what opponents to a bill by Sen. Brad Ashford of Omaha, LB957, say would happen if the bill becomes law.

Nebraska already makes information about high-risk sex offenders, those considered likely to reoffend, available on the Nebraska State Patrol Sex Offender Registry at http://www.nsp.state.ne.us/sor/

Perform a search for McCook, for example, and you'll find seven such offenders, where and what they were convicted of, and their home addresses.

There's a warning on the home page: "Sex offender registry information shall not be used to retaliate against the registrants, their families, or their employers in any way. Vandalism, verbal or written threats of harm are illegal and will result in arrest and prosecution."

The proposal, however, would expand the online registry to include the name of everyone convicted of a sexual offense that carries a sentence of at least one year, and more information about them, including where they work.

A 10-year-old Lincoln boy's family testified in favor of the law, saying they never would have let him go to a convenience store if they had know a convicted sex offender worked there.

The same day the boy allegedly was assaulted, last October, the convenience store employee killed himself after learning the police were investigating him.

Col. Bryan Tuma, superintendent of the Nebraska State Patrol, supports the bill, saying it would help create a nationwide registry of sex offenders. Now, a patchwork of laws makes it difficult to track registered sex offenders from one state to another.

If Nebraska doesn't pass the legislation, it could lose about $60,000 in federal funding.

Besides the current online registry, sex offenders can be prohibited by local government from living within 500 feet of a school or childcare center, and another bill would keep them from working within that distance.

Are more restrictions needed? Is it possible to rehabilitate sex offenders and how much differently should they be treated than other lawbreakers?

Whatever the Legislature's decision, the new measures should stand or fall on their own merit. The $60,000 in federal funding shouldn't be the determining factor.