29-4013. Rules and regulations; release of information; duties; access to public notification information; access to documents.

(1) The Nebraska State Patrol shall adopt and promulgate rules and regulations to carry out the registration provisions of the Sex Offender Registration Act.

(2)(a) The Nebraska State Patrol shall adopt and promulgate rules and regulations for the release of information pursuant to section 29-4009.

(b) The procedures for release of information established by the Nebraska State Patrol shall provide for law enforcement and public notification using electronic systems.

(3) Information concerning the address or whereabouts of a sex offender may be disclosed to his or her victim or victims.

(4) The following shall have access to public notification information: Any agency responsible for conducting employment-related background checks under section 3 of the National Child Protection Act of 1993, 42 U.S.C. 5119a; any social service entity responsible for protecting minors in the child welfare system; any volunteer organization in which contact with minors or other vulnerable individuals might occur; any public housing agency in each area in which a registered sex offender resides or is an employee or a student; any governmental agency conducting confidential background checks for employment, volunteer, licensure, or certification purposes; and any health care provider who serves children or vulnerable adults for the purpose of conducting confidential background checks for employment. If any means of notification proposes a fee for usage, then nonprofit organizations holding a certificate of exemption under section 501(c) of the Internal Revenue Code shall not be charged.

(5) Personnel for the sex offender registration and community notification division of the Nebraska State Patrol shall have access to all documents that are generated by any governmental agency that may have bearing on sex offender registration and community notification. This may include, but is not limited to, law enforcement reports, presentence reports, criminal histories, birth certificates, or death certificates. The division shall not be charged for access to documents under this subsection. Access to such documents will ensure that a fair determination of what is an appropriate registration period is completed using the totality of all information available.

(6) Nothing in subsection (2) of this section shall be construed to prevent law enforcement officers from providing community notification concerning any person who poses a danger under circumstances that are not provided for in the Sex Offender Registration Act.

Source

Annotations

Amendments to the set-aside statute that allow a set-aside conviction to be used for purposes of determining risk under the Sex Offender Registration Act did not apply retroactively to a sex offender whose prior convictions for non-sex-offenses were set aside prior to the amendments, and thus the offender's set-aside convictions could not be used for risk assessment under the act. Orders setting aside the offender's convictions vested him with the right to have the set-aside convictions used only for those purposes listed in this section at the time the orders were entered. McCray v. Nebraska State Patrol, 271 Neb. 1, 710 N.W.2d 300 (2006).

For purposes of classifying a convicted sex offender under the Sex Offender Registration Act, unsworn victim statements obtained by police were not competent evidence to support scoring under the section of the risk assessment instrument concerning the nature of the offender's sexual assault behavior. Where the statements were not correlated to any offense for which the offender was charged or convicted, statements bore no other indicia of probative value, and nothing in the record established the truth of the statements. McCray v. Nebraska State Patrol, 271 Neb. 1, 710 N.W.2d 300 (2006).

The fact that orders setting aside a convicted sex offender's prior convictions for nonsexual offenses were issued after the offender's risk assessment instrument was scored did not preclude the hearing officer from considering those orders when resolving the offender's administrative challenge to his sex offender classification under the Sex Offender Registration Act; regulations existing at the time of the administrative review process indicated that the hearing officer could consider events occurring after the initial scoring of the risk assessment instrument. McCray v. Nebraska State Patrol, 271 Neb. 1, 710 N.W.2d 300 (2006).

This section permits the Nebraska State Patrol to post information concerning Level 3 sex offenders on its Web site. Slansky v. Nebraska State Patrol, 268 Neb. 360, 685 N.W.2d 335 (2004).