Bahamians should not let their guard down once the government fully rolls out the sexual offenders register, Minister of National Security Wayne Munroe said yesterday, adding that he hopes to address manpower and resource issues related to the register next week.
“We will seek to educate the public on exactly what the provisions of the register permits, how safe you should feel because somebody is on the register that you know about and you may find that the launching of the register gives no comfort for you to let down your guard,” Munroe said.
“As Bahamians, when we travel to the US, we watch our children very closely, don’t we? We do that because we don’t feel safe letting them out of our sight in the US. We will let the public know exactly how safe these provisions can make them. We will not want anyone to let down their guard unnecessarily or unwarrantedly.”
In late 2013, amendments to the Sexual Offences Act and the Child Protection Act were debated and passed.
The bills were to provide for the creation of a sexual offenders register and a Mandatory Action Rescuing Children Operation (MARCO) alert.
Munroe said the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act, 2014, brought the register into effect on July 27, 2019.
“There was money paid for the electronic registration system and for kiosk machines for biometric reporting of sexual offenders,” he said.
“To date, there is one person on the register who has been released, I’m advised, and there are other persons who are in the prison who have been put on the system.”
Munroe said the team responsible for the register is “ready to go”.
He said it is subject to “some manpower and resource issues that I intend to address speedily within the scope of next week”.
“The issue also is that this law has been enforced from 2019,” he said.
“Persons have been released since 2019 that are not on the register, that do not have to report requirements that the register permits.
“So having brought the law into place into July 27, 2019, the previous administration did nothing to notify the public in accordance with the act.
“I will be considering – together with the Office of the Attorney General – what ability we have to deal with the persons who would have been released from July 27, 2019, to date to address that breach of duty by the previous administration.”
Munroe said public education campaign will accompany the rollout of the register.
The post ‘Don’t let your guard down’ when sex offenders register launches appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.
source https://thenassauguardian.com/dont-let-your-guard-down-when-sex-offenders-register-launches/
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