(Host) Public Safety Commissioner Tom Tremblay says it’s going to take time and resources to improve the accuracy of Vermont’s online Sex Offender Registry.
A state audit earlier this summer found what were termed "sizeable" errors in the registry, which includes information about more than 2,600 individuals.
The mistakes included incorrect information about individuals, as well as cases where people were included in the registry who should not have been.
The state auditor’s office found the errors by examining information about several dozen randomly selected individuals.
Tremblay says the problems are partly due to outdated computer software and the fact that information is provided by different state agencies using different forms of data entry.
He says his department is also trying to adjust to a dramatic expansion of the online registry last fall, which was mandated by law. As a result the department has to manage data on many more people.
(Tremblay) "The way we do business right now, do we have enough staffing to do that? I would say, no we don’t. But what we’re doing is we’re analyzing the way we do business. Can we change the way we do business to make ourselves more efficient. Is there software and technology to allow us to be more efficient. And that’s what we’re doing right now."
(Host) Despite the problems with the registry, Tremblay says he’s convinced it’s an important public safety tool.
(Tremblay) "We know that offenders who are offending try to gain access to children. They do that by trying to befriend people, by trying to befriend families by trying to involve themselves in activities that children are involved in. And this an immediate tool for that family to say, ‘Why is this individual paying so much attention to my child?’"
(Host) Tremblay says his department has corrected the mistakes uncovered by the audit, which involved a small group of randomly selected individuals listed in the registry.
Tremblay says the Department of Public Safety is conducting its own internal audit of all of information in the registry.