Dru's Voice - Support Dru's Law National Sex Offender Public Database Act of 2005

August 5, 2006 (See Photo Gallery)

President Bush signed into law The Adam Walsh Protection and Safety Act on July 27, 2006, in a ceremony in the White House's Rose Garden.

DRU'S LAW is included in this Act.

The law named after Dru requires convicted child molesters to be listed on a national Internet database and face a felony charge for failing to update their whereabouts.

This database will be the first national online listing available to the public who can search by zip code. It will aid police officers in finding more than 100,000 unaccounted for sex offenders. It calls for harsh federal punishment for sexually assaulting children. If a victim is murdered the offender could face the death penalty.

At the ceremony, President Bush said the new law will help prevent child abuse by creating the national child abuse registry and requiring investigators to do background checks on adoptive and foster parents before they are approved to take custody of a child. Giving child protective services professionals in all 50 states access to this information will improve their ability to investigate their child abuse cases.

Child advocates have called the bill the most sweeping sex offender legislation to target pedophiles in years.

The law imposes a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 years for raping a child; a mandatory 10-year penalty for sex trafficking offenses involving children and for coercing child prostitution; and increases minimum sentences for molesters who travel between states.

The larger measure is named after the Walsh's 6-year-old son, Adam, who was abducted exactly 25 years ago Thursday, and subsequently murdered.

"This bill is going to save the lives of children," said Dorgan after the ceremony.

The Library of Congress: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:h.r.04472: or go to "The Bill" at the bottom of this page.

What H.R. 4472 Will Achieve

The new Children's Safety and Violent Crime Reduction Act of 2005 will:

▪ Improve the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Program to ensure that sex offenders register and keep current where they reside, work and attend school

▪ Require quarterly verification, in-person verification and regular notarized verification mailings

▪ Require public access to state websites

▪ Create the Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website to search for sex offender information in each community

▪ Expand terms to include juvenile sex offenders

▪ Require states to notify one another when a sex offender moves from one state to another

▪ Expand sex offenses covered by registration and notification requirements to include military, tribal, foreign and sex crimes and increase the duration of registration requirements to protect the public

▪ Expand community notification requirements to include active efforts to inform law enforcement agencies, schools, public housing, social service agencies and volunteer organizations in areas where sex offenders reside, work or attend school

▪ Create a new criminal penalty of a maximum of 20 years incarceration for sex offenders who refuse to comply with registration requirements

▪ Protect foster children from sexual abuse and exploitation

Dru Sjodin

Not One More Child

Parents Coalition

Protect