Waltham ordered to remove sex-offender data from Web
A Middlesex Superior Court judge has ordered the Waltham Police Department to remove the names, pictures, and addresses of local sex offenders from its website.
The decision, made public yesterday, may force other police departments in the state to remove the names of sex offenders from their websites. The ruling allows only the Massachusetts Sexual Offender Registry Board to post the names of level 3 sex offenders, which state law defines as those whose "risk of reoffense is high."
In an 11-page ruling issued March 31, Judge Christopher J. Muse wrote that the department's publishing of sex offenders' names violates state law, because it disseminates the information beyond the community.
"Posting the information on an Internet website, accessible to anyone in the world, does not share the characteristic of notifying only those in the immediate community in which the level 3 offender lives," Muse wrote.
He added: "The Internet is not an appropriate method for community notification."
The ruling is a victory for the Committee for Public Counsel Services, which oversees the state's efforts to provide legal aid to the indigent. The committee, on behalf of a sex offender, sued the department last year after it posted the Waltham man's name online.
The committee last year also sued the state's Sexual Offender Registry Board and obtained a restraining order blocking the board from posting information about sex offenders on its website. Last week, a judge lifted the restraining order, ruling the board could post the information.
"The problem is that Internet dissemination is worldwide -- anyone can click on it," said William Leahy, the committee's chief counsel, who argued the information could be seen by children or those who want to harm sex offenders. "We do not see adequate protections."
A lawyer representing Waltham Police Chief Edward Drew, named as the case's defendant, said the department has filed a motion for reconsideration, hoping additional information may sway the judge.
"Obviously, we're disappointed by the decision," said Bernadette Sewell, Waltham's assistant city solicitor. "It's in the city's interest that the information be online, because if there's a name of someone specifically in Waltham, residents can go to our website."
Sewell argued the department used the same "safeguards and protocols" as the state board.
But Muse said in his ruling that such postings by police departments violate a law passed last November. "The Legislature made it clear that the only appropriate method of dissemination via the Internet is through a centralized, safeguarded database monitored by the board," he wrote.
Muse also wrote that inaccurate postings "would be forever life-altering for an individual" and could open police departments to "tremendous liability."
As a compromise, he proposed that police departments include a link on their websites to the state board's site.
David Abel can be reached at dabel@globe.com. 
