The List of 1,500

The jury's still out on whether The List of 1,500 potential killers exists. When council candidates Melanie Bates and Charlie Winburn pitched it last month, Bates said she had a copy of the list of those living in her neighborhood. But after news broke about their list, they and supporter Todd Portune started saying the list didn't actually exist yet. They've declined requests from The Enquirer to produce it.



Yet, Winburn still wants to talk about it. In a letter to Mark Mallory and city council members, he reminds that council, in 1995, passed something called the Registration of Convicted Persons Act.



Here's some of the letter:



"As you may know, I recently developed a website, http://www.thecriminalnextdoor.com/, which uses the most dangerous criminal list model as a framework for encouraging effective community dialogue about public safety issues. In addition, Chris Kearney and I developed a new screening process to track the most violent criminals in Cincinnati. This system will enable citizens, law enforcement and regional governmental leaders to serve as an effective broker in bridging the gap between the law and order and intervention mindsets. It is important that we track violent criminals—not only from the standpoint of where they offend, but also where these persons live—in order that the citizens realize “true community control”, so that law enforcement agencies can have better criminal intelligence, and so that social service agencies may more effectively and efficiently connect these persons with important social services, such as drug and mental health treatment and job training.



When I was on Cincinnati City Council, I strongly supported legislation, along with Mayor Qualls and Council, requiring the most violent and repeat criminals register with the City of Cincinnati so our citizens know who they are and where they live. This rule of law supports the criminal next door concept as well as the so called "Killers List" The Cincinnati Enquirer referred to on April 23, 2007. We passed City of Cincinnati Ordinance No. 291-1995, now codified as Chapter 717 in the Cincinnati Municipal Code (the “Registration of Convicted Persons Act”), which requires repeat felons—as well as persons convicted of aggravated murder, murder, voluntary manslaughter, rape, sexual battery, gross sexual imposition, felonious sexual penetration, kidnapping, abduction, and child stealing—to register with the City. These are some of your most-dangerous criminals in Cincinnati. It's a good place to start effective monitoring and tracking. According to most criminologists those who commit two or more felonies are highly likely to commit another violent crime. Specifically, with respect to sexual offenders, U.S. Department of Justice statistics show sexual offenders are 7.5 times more likely to recommit these crimes.

Pursuant to the Registration of Convicted Persons Act (the “RCPA”), once a violent or repeat felon registers, the City is required to notify the neighborhood where the felon is moving. If properly implemented and executed, the RCPA will assist law enforcement and citizens in tracking the most violent criminals. The RCPA is consistent with our recent efforts on improving public safety through community participation. The RCPA and the tracking system Mr. Kearney and I are proposing do not violate any constitutional rights of violent and repeat criminals. If this is the case then maybe the Council should repeal this Ordinance. If we can effectively implement and execute this Act, our law enforcement will be able to better manage the approximately 1500 most-dangerous criminals in the City."



The item's on the agenda for Tuesday's 2 p.m. law committee meeting.