8/21/2013
By Ivan Pereira
A City Council bill would give New Yorkers the power to see if their next-door neighbor ever had a criminal past with a gun.
City Councilman Peter Vallone is set to introduce legislation Thursday that would put the NYPD’s gun offender registry online The databasekeeps track of those convicted of certain gun crimes.Vallone, who chairs the city’s public safety committee and is running for Queens borough president, is also introducing another bill that would call on the state to create its own version of the registry.
“We cannot allow these violent offenders to slip through the cracks upon their release from prison, and these bills will keep residents and law enforcement officers across the state well aware of their locations,” he said in a statement.
A mayoral spokesman said Mayor Michael Bloomberg would review the bill, which has support from several city and state leaders.
The registry, which is only accessible to the NYPD, mandates that the convicts register their address with the police and update their info every six months for the first four years after they are released from prison.
Failure to comply in keeping their data current results in jail time.
