Wilmington councilman proposes gun offender registry, draws criticism

Christina Jedra | The News Journal

Show Caption Hide Caption Ex-offenders concerned over planned gun registry The Gun Offender Registration Act would require Wilmington residents convicted of a gun crime to register with the police within business days of their release from incarceration.

"Every time you commit a new offense , the calendar starts back at zero," said Councilman Bob Williams.

Not showing up could lead to a fine of up to $1,000 and/or up to a year in jail, the ordinance states — and each day the registrant fails to appear is another misdemeanor offense.

Any Wilmington resident convicted of a gun-related offense could be required to register with the city police department and check in with police every six months — or face jail time and/or up to a $1,000 penalty — if new legislation is passed by City Council.

The Gun Offender Registration Act, introduced by Councilman Bob Williams on Thursday, would require all Wilmington residents convicted of a gun crime in the state of Delaware to register with the police within two business days of their release from incarceration.

"We keep saying over and over and over that it’s a small percentage of the population that is wreaking the most havoc and my idea was to target that population," Williams said.

If enacted, the law would act similarly to the sexual offender registry, requiring registrants to be photographed, periodically verify personal information, and provide notification of change of address for a period of three years. If the individual commits another gun crime, the three-year term would start again.

The idea is a "behavior modification approach," said Williams, a 20-year veteran of the Wilmington Police Department. If offenders know they have to check in with police periodically, Williams said they may try to avoid criminal activity.

"They have to be cognizant and know: in six months I've got to check in, and if I've got warrants, outstanding violations, I'm going to get locked up. If I keep my nose clean and in six months I don't have violations, I can walk out the door. If I don't show up, I'll be violating anyway."

Not showing up could lead to a fine of up to $1,000 and/or up to a year in jail, the ordinance states — and each day the registrant fails to appear is another misdemeanor offense.

The proposal is causing concern in the legal and criminal justice communities and raising questions about whether it could make an impact on crime.

"It's another hurdle in which they're humiliated and unfairly judged," said Corie Priest, a program coordinator who works with ex-offenders at the Wilmington Hope Commission's Achievement Center.

Police already have information about offender's criminal records, Williams said, but the police, court and parole data is siloed.

"You’d have to dig into court records for their past and their priors," Williams said. "This puts them right in your lap."

Law and ethics

The registry proposal comes at a time of increased gun violence in Wilmington. One hundred and one people have been shot so far this year, 20 of whom died. The pressure is on public officials to stop the carnage.

But implementing Williams' registry might be difficult.

"We don’t think it’s legal," said Ryan Tack-Hooper, a staff attorney and legislative advocate for the American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware.

Tack-Hooper said there are two significant constitutional issues.

According to the ordinance, the registration must include, among other things, "a description of the crime for which the gun offender was convicted or received a disposition" plus "any other information required by the rules and regulations adopted by the Police Chief under this Act."

Such a requirement could violate the Fifth Amendment, which protects against self-incrimination, Tack-Hooper said.

"It forces people to disclose potentially incriminating information," he said.

The discretion awarded to the police chief is also legally problematic regarding separation of powers and due process, according to Tack-Hooper, who said it effectively gives the police chief "the power make criminal law without creating any meaningful principles or boundaries on that."

"It says the police chief gets to promulgate regulations and rules that will govern the registration and disclosure process — including coming up with new things that have to be disclosed," Tack-Hooper said.

But the ordinance's problems go beyond the law, Tack-Hooper said.

"It's a terrible policy. This creates significant problems for the people who live in communities most impacted by gun violence without any evidence that such laws reduce violence," Tack-Hooper said. "If you fail to register for three days, you’re facing a three-year prison term. The reason people don't show up for these kinds of things isn't that they’re trying to evade law enforcement. It's that their personal lives are unstable or they don't get notice or they’re not able to arrange transportation or childcare."

Tack-Hooper said the policy will only worsen mass incarceration.

"What you’re going to get is hundreds of people who, the crime they've committed is just this new crime you’ve invented and who are going to have all these fines and potential imprisonment, and for what?"

The ACLU is considering fighting the registry if it is passed, Tack-Hooper said.

At a support group for recently incarcerated men at the Wilmington Achievement Center on Friday, ex-offenders expressed their concerns about the ordinance and the possibility that the registry could be made public.

"They try to get it to the point where anytime you come home, you goin’ back to jail," said one man who declined to give his name. " So every time I go for a job, it’s like I’m a serial killer? I might’ve just got caught with a gun. I’m not killing nobody. Never was a killer. I’m using it for protection. They got me lookin’ crazy."

The group discussed how a registry could unfairly include people that don't pose a public threat.

Brad Owens, a Home Commission re-entry navigator, said the organization has clients that volunteer to take the fall for friends and end up with gun charges they didn’t earn. If a group is pulled over while driving and there is a illegal gun in the vehicle, Owens said the “code” mandates the person without a gun charge takes the hit.

“It’s your turn, you take it,” Owens said of such situations. “It happens every day.”

Kontal Copeland, a peer support specialist with the Hope Commission who served time for a gun crime, said recently released offenders are focused on avoiding their enemies. The idea that someone living in a dangerous neighborhood would take the risk of forgoing a weapon in order to avoid getting caught up in a registry isn't realistic, he said.

“Ain’t nobody thinking like that."

Mayor Mike Purzycki has not yet been briefed on the legislation and is withholding comment for now. Police Chief Robert Tracy is not opposed to the concept but details about staffing and resources would need to be worked out before a law is enacted, according to Sgt. Andrew Janvier, a police spokeswoman.

The bill's co-sponosor, Councilwoman Loretta Walsh, did not return a request for comment.

Would it work?

Similar registries are in place in other cities. New York City, under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, was the first to institute such a system in 2006. Other municipalities followed suit, including Chicago, which, unlike New York, makes the registry information available to the public online.

In Baltimore, which launched its registry in 2008, less than 5 percent of the 1,669 registered gun offenders were arrested on new gun charges, and 25 percent were arrested on any new charges, according to a 2012 report by The Washington Post.

A Baltimore official told the Post at that time that the registry "definitely had an impact," making the city's recidivism rate lower than the national average. A Department of Justice study released in 2014 found that about 69 percent of state prisoners released in 2005 were arrested within three years.

The Baltimore mayor's office did not immediately respond to a request for more updated numbers.

Elsewhere, results are dubious. In Chicago earlier this year, city council members questioned the low number of registrants on their lists and speculated that the system was not capturing all intended targets. A 2013 report by the Louisiana Law Review states that criminal registries do more to quell the public's "need to perceive control over anxiety-provoking threats" than actually making people safer.

A 2014 Hofstra University Law Review report suggested that a blanket requirement for all gun offenders was too much. It recommended offenders participate in a hearing to decide whether they are likely to re-offend which would decide whether they are listed on a public registry.

Whether it would help reduce crime in Wilmington is unclear.

A registry could be redundant with data already available to police through DelJis, the Delaware criminal justice information system that tracks suspects from arrest to prison and beyond.

"That is readily available to them," said Peggy Bell, DelJis's executive director. "If they want to know who got out of jail and is living in the city, it’s do-able."

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Without new information, all the registry would accomplish is further punishment for those who have already served their time, said Charles Madden, the former executive director of the Hope Commission.

"It strikes me like another punitive action aginst people that are returning to the community when there already so many barriers to their successful reentry," said Madden, who works on public safety strategies for New Castle County.

Madden added: "I’m not suggesting that guys not be accountable for their actions, but what bothers me is repeated accountability. It's in perpetuity. What that leads to is hopelessness because they don't feel they'll ever get out of the system."

A tool for law enforcement

Williams said the registry shouldn't have much of an impact for those no longer engaging in crime.

"If you’re giving up that lifestyle, this won’t be a problem for you at all. If you continue that lifestyle, it’s going to be uncomfortable."

According to Williams, the tool could be helpful for police officers, who are being directed by Police Chief Tracy to employ community policing strategies and patrol the same areas every time they work.

"This would be something they could use to their advantage to know folk in their districts that are known violators," Williams said.

The legislation is not expected to incur any additional cost for the city, Williams said. The registry could be managed by the officer would already handles the sex offender registry, he said.

The councilman could not provide the number of people who would be eligible for the registry if it were to start immediately. A Department of Corrections spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment about the number of gun offenders who return to Wilmington annually.

But according to one ex-offender: "Everybody got a gun charge."

Anticipating criticism from gun supporters, Williams stressed that the legislation is not a Second Amendment issue.

"This does not go after anybody’s right to bear arms," he said. "This is not anti-gun legislation. This is anti-criminal legislation."

Whether Wilmington would publish a gun offender registry for public use, or issue public warnings on individuals who don't comply, would be up to the police chief, Williams said.

"If someone doesn't check in, he could say, 'Neighbors, be on alert. He’s a person of interest,'" Williams said.

If the registry were made public, Williams believes it could help solve cases.

"If (residents) observe a shooting and recognize someone on the list, I'm hopeful they would come forward with an identity," he said.

Tack-Hooper said publicizing the data would have negative consequences.

"As a policy matter, this sort of stigmatization doesn’t help people put their lives back together," he said. "The reason people are able to leave crime is that they get jobs and create a stable life for themselves. Why would you wanna make it harder for people to do that?

Ultimately, Williams said the potential benefits outweigh the discomfort for ex-offenders.

"If you remain offense free for three years, you come off the list," he said. "It’s not the end of the world. It’s just a period of time where you’re under the microscope."

Contact Christina Jedra at cjedra@delawareonline.com, (302) 324-2837 or on Twitter @ChristinaJedra.