To deal with crimes rooted in the opioid epidemic, Rensselaer County officials have created a "Drug Dealer Registry."
Described as a "pioneering initiative" designed to track people convicted of drug sale crimes within the county, a newly enacted local law calls for creation of a registry that will record names and addresses.
Officials say the catalogue will be publicly accessible, like a sex offender registry.
Rensselaer County legislator Bruce Patire, a Republican from District 5, is credited with spearheading the initiative.
"I wanted people to have, to know who's in their neighborhood," Patire said. "I wanted people to be able to go to a site and say, 'oh, this person that I see hanging around the street corner, around the corner from our school, he's been known to sell drugs, or that person has been known to sell drugs,' OK, and then keep your eye on them. And my idea is, if you see them sell, so grab your cell, call the authorities tell them, 'this person who's a known drug dealer is out here, and I just see them selling drugs. He's out here in the corner doing this and doing that.' And my objective is, you have to make it more difficult for these people to thrive. We have to help the people in our community, protect their children, by making sure these people are put away. They're bad people and they should be in jail. And they're not going to jail. These drug dealers are being released."
New York Civil Liberties Union Regional Director Melanie Trimble argues there is no evidence that public registries reduce the likelihood of recidivism.
“So that's one thing, that these registries just simply don't work," Trimble said. "The second is that, because of the stigma that the registry is created in the and the public, having access to the information, often causes more recidivism, than we would like to see. So it's actually counterproductive to what they're claiming the registry will do. The third point is that these registries are rife with errors. And it's nearly impossible to remove or correct the errors that exist in the registries. And so a person can be stigmatized for life without any due cause or due process.”
Trimble warns racial disparities are also likely to come into play.
“If you take a close look at the animal abuse registry, it somewhat indicates that a lot more people on that registry are people of color. And we know that Rensselaer County is about 88% white, but the percentage of the people on the registry are far outweighing that population," said Trimble.
Democratic Rensselaer County Legislature Minority Leader Peter Grimm sees the law as protective.
"The local law was established in light of everything that has been happening, you know, we are in an epidemic now, especially with fentanyl entered in the mix for the drugs in our community, and it's an epidemic. And to combat that, you know, we're trying to come up with what to do. I know a lot of people may have some issues with people's rights. With this, this is not a forever term. I mean, this is a 10-year term that can be done, or if these people are cleared of anything they can come off the registry as well," Grimm said.
Patire is hopeful the website version of the registry will be up and running by February 1st.
District Attorney Mary Pat Donnelly's Chief of Staff Jackie McDonough says the next step is to file with the Department of State. Paperwork was sent Wednesday and once confirmation is received, the local law will be "officially numbered." A statement issued on behalf of Donnelly says she is “pleased to partner with the County Legislature to find ways to keep dangerous drugs off the streets of our community. They understand what the District Attorney’s office is facing as we see an increase of drug arrests and deadly drug overdoses daily.”
Neither Troy Police nor Rensselaer County Sheriff Kyle Bourgault responded to requests for comment.
