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Summary: A study funded by the U.S. Department of Justice shows that many registered sex offenders across the country are systematically falsifying their names, birth dates, social security numbers, or other personal identifying information for purposes of living with a false identity while appearing to satisfy court-imposed or statutory restrictions on sex offenders. HB 2637 seeks to remedy this problem by increasing the penalty if a sex offender uses false identifying information. This bill enhances the penalty to the next degree of felony for failure to comply with sex offender registration requirements if the sex offender used false identifying information.
Analysis: The sex offender registry is intended to assist people in identifying potentially malevolent individuals. Attempting to circumvent the sex offender registry via fraud impedes this. Enhancing the penalty if a sex offender uses fraudulent information to circumvent the registry will hopefully deter such behavior. For these reasons, we recommend voting yes on HB 2637.