HPD - Special Operations

Megan’s Law
A Better Understanding

This law provides for the creation of a state registry of sex offenders and a community notification procedure, which mandates the Monmouth County Prosecutors office to place offenders into one of three categories:

Tier I – Low Risk Sex Offenders
Tier II – Moderate Risk Sex Offenders
Tier III – High Risk Sex Offenders

The federal court made clear that these guidelines must establish a system of community notification, which mandates a uniform method of distribution that reasonably limits the disclosure of information to those citizens within our community to receive it.

It shall be the responsibility of the Monmouth County Prosecutors Office to transmit registration forms to the New Jersey Division of State Police. It is then the responsibility of the New Jersey Division of State Police to maintain the state registry of sex offenders, including the update of current information, the input of new registrants and providing that information to the National Sex Offender Registry.

Sex offenders moving to this state must notify the Chief Law Enforcement Officer of the municipality or the State Police, in circumstances when the municipality does not have a local police department, within 10 days of their arrival in New Jersey. Also upon a change of address, offenders must notify the law enforcement agency with which they are registered, and must re-register with the new agency at least 10 days prior to moving.

When a sex offender qualifies for Megan’s Law, the individual must report to the police department in the municipality they are residing. The offender is required to fill out a Uniform Monmouth County Sex Offender Registration form. This document contains personal information of the offender, commonly called identifiers, which the offender is required to sign, which will then be sent to the Monmouth County Prosecutors Officer to classify every registered offender as to a specific tier or risk of re-offense. The Monmouth County Prosecutors Office will utilize a specially designed risk assessment chart for each offender, and when all factors considered, the offender will receive a numerical score, which will then place the offender in one of the three tier categories.

The Highlands Police Department maintains a central filing system on all sex offenders who may be residing in our community. In the event a sex offender should register within our community, registrants are monitored by our department on a daily basis, and visited periodically to confirm residency. In the event a sex offender fails to register with Megan’s Law it will constitute a crime of a fourth degree.

Information is available on the Internet, New Jersey State Police website: www.njsp.org. Click onto the Sex offender registry icon. The law limits the information to be placed on the Internet to all High-risk Tier 3 offenders and some Moderate risk Tier 2 offenders, but not all.

The Highlands Police Department would like to assure all our residents that sex offenders are monitored very closely. We understand our community would like to know when a sex offender is moving into our town, unfortunately, the Courts, and the Attorney General, have limited the times when notification may occur and who in the community is entitled to the information. However, in the event that certain organizations or residents are given notification or if you receive Megan’s law information pursuant to a court order, and then share the information you are violating a Court Order and will be held in Contempt of Court. If residents have questions, please contact Sgt. Joseph Rogers at 732-872-1158.

We hope viewers now have a better understanding of the Megan’s Law Procedures and suggest the following websites for additional information: