AMARILLO, TEXAS -- The Texas Public Registry of sex offenders is not expected to go away anytime soon. The department of public safety warned officials if they have to reduce spending, then it would disappear.
The agency is required to operate the registry, which keeps track of more than 62,000 registered sex offenders. It oversees the website and postcard notifications to neighbors.
Now the Texas Department of Public Safety says the proposed cut was a mistake, and it does not plan to make any reductions. So why all the publicity?
"Where we run into problems is when an agency tried to identify a very popular or very necessary program and say if you cut our budget we're going to have to cut this program, that's not what we want to do. We want to cut bureaucracy and we want to cut uh, services that aren't absolutely necessary or essential to the public of Texas," said St. Rep. John Smithee, (R) Amarillo.
Smithee does not expect the legislature would entertain the registry going away or even having funding severely cut because it's an important tool for Texas to protect themselves.
