Kentucky Sex Offender Laws and Regulations

In Kentucky, the sex offenses have categories, according to their seriousness, and the penalty ascribed for them are in accordance with these categories.

For misdemeanor sex crimes, like indecent exposure or sexual misconduct, a Kentucky sex offender is incarcerated for less than a year. He or she may be required to attend counseling, provide community service, be charged a fine, or given probation.

On the other hand, convicts who have been charged for felony sex crimes, which are more aggravated and violent, the incarceration period increases up to a lifetime and, in some cases, the death penalty as well.

Megan's Law

Though sex offenders have always co-existed with us in our community, in 1996, the Supreme Court established that when a sex offender is released into the community, there are potential possibilities on their part to repeat their crime. And, thus, sex offender registration became mandatory. This was in response to the Megan Kanka case that took place in New Jersey in 1994.

Megan was a seven year old child who had been sexually abused and brutally murdered by a one-time sex offender who lived across the street.

Now, in compliance with Megan’s Law, a law that was implemented in 1996 by Bill Clinton, sex offender registration is mandatory for every state. Thus, Kentucky sex offenders, convicted of felonies, must also register with the Kentucky State Police once they are released from their confinement into the community.

Kentucky Sex Offender Database

According to the Section 17.580, the State Police of Kentucky is liable to release public information on all the sex offenders registered with them. This database is accessible to general public through the Internet. The objective of this public accessible, Internet database is to ensure the safety of public and notify them of sex offenders residing in their area. This site's intent is not to harass these offenders but to alert you for any possible danger.

This informational database on Kentucky sex offenders can come handy if you have kids or if you are alone and are relocating to a new place. You can perform a quick search through this website to know about the presence or whereabouts of sex offenders in your new area. It is also beneficial if your child goes to school or a daycare in an area far away from your home or office. You can also refer to this website before hiring nanny, driver, domestic help, or an employee for your office.

When a Kentucky sex offender completes his or her tenure of probation, incarceration, or whatever sentence he or she might have been serving, the local law enforcement agency nearest to his or her abode is notified. The offender then must register with Department of Corrections, Kentucky State Police, or the probate or parole officer on the very date of release, or, preferably, before the release. The out of state offenders are given five business days to register themselves with the Kentucky State Police.

If a local Kentucky sex offender changes his or her address or county, then the existing authorizing office must be notified before or on the date of relocation. The offender is given not more than five days to report at the new probation or parole office about his or her arrival in the new city, town, or county.

In Kentucky, if a sex offender moves from other state, he or she must register even if there is an entry made on that name in their home state. He or she will need to register for the rest of their life even if the rule of the home state is different from Kentucky’s.

Types of Kentucky Sex Offender Registrants

There are three types of registrants with Kentucky State Police Sex Offender Registry. They are lifetime registrants (who need to prove their residential address quarterly), 10 years registrants (who are instructed to appear every year for renewal of registration as well as address verification), and 20 years registrants (who appear before local law enforcement agencies annually).

Public Awareness

If you want information Kentucky sex offenders, you can visit the sex offenders page in the official website of Kentucky State Police at http://www.kentuckystatepolice.org/sor.htm. You can reach them via their mailing address at K.S.P. Sex Offender Registry, 1250 Louisville Road, Frankfort, KY, 40601. Or, you can call the SOR office at (502) 227-8700 from 8am to 4:30pm on all weekdays.

The website for Kentucky sex offenders registration is developed, maintained, and updated by Kentucky State Police. This is the Kentucky counterpart of Megan’s Law. This ensures that the public is notified about the sex offenders residing in a particular area to raise public awareness of safety among the general public.

In Kentucky, when an offender registers with State Police, the authorities pass on the information to the sheriff of the county, where he or she resides. Now, the sheriff relays the information to the local school board and takes necessary measures to get the news published in local newspapers. This is done to notify the community of a new sex offender being released in the community.

For real time information on sex offenders, you can also call the toll-free number of Alert Line at 1-866-564-5652 and provide your contact number along with your zip code. When the Kentucky State Police comes across your notification of a sex offender loitering in your vicinity, you will get a notification call from them. The system keeps calling you every two hours for 24 hours until you answer the call. However, the call is not made from 3:00pm to 5:00pm so that no child answers the call.

To make this call, you don’t need an Internet connection, only a phone connection will serve your purpose. And, if you don’t have access to computer with high-speed Internet connection, there are public libraries where this provision is available free-of-cost.

The information that you can gather from the website would include first name, last name, all the aliases ever used, SSN, age, date of birth, sex, ethnicity, color of hair and eyes, fingerprints, DNA report, proof of residential address and current photograph. Additionally, the creation of a new email address, social network identity, and instant message identity information should be available as well.