wbay.com (Wisconsin) : Proposed Drug Offenders Registry.
Convicted drug dealers may soon have to register to reside in Brown County, similar to the way sex offenders have to register.
Brown County Supervisor Bernie Erickson says, "if you're caught doing something illegal, why should you be protected?" Erickson is pushing for drug offender registry. "It's valuable for citizens or residents to know who's living in their area and who's their neighbor."
Erickson's proposal would require convicted drug users and dealers to register with Brown County, much like sex offenders do, and have their names and addresses printed in the paper.
"I would like to take that a step further and maybe have a hotline or something online, where people could go type in their zipcode and see who's living in that general area."
Brown County already has a drug offender neighborhood search on its website. All you do is type in a zip code and a listing comes up the names of offenders, their address at the time of their conviction and their offense.
The difference would be, offenders would have to register with the county and their current information would be available to the public."
Several states like Minnesota and Tennessee have launched methamphetamine databases, that critics have attacked for stigmatizing reformed drug offenders, making it harder them to find employment and housing. (Gee, sound familiar?)
But Ben Heiman, president of the Imperial Neighborhood Association says the public has a right to know. "Anything that will help to curtail some of the problems is a good thing."
