More than 20,000 names purged from Michigan's sex offender registry

Following up on a recent Michigan Supreme Court ruling, the state of Michigan has removed the names of more than 20,000 people from its sex offender registry. 

That's nearly half of the about 43,000 names that "were actively registered or required to be registered," state officials said. The number of those who remain listed could change as the process continues. 

"Michigan has one of the largest, most bloated registries in the entire country," said Miriam Aukerman, director of strategic litigation for ACLU of Michigan. 

The deciding factor concerns those accused of relevant crimes that occurred before July 1, 2011. The Michigan Supreme Court ruled on Sept. 9 that the 2021 amendments to the Sex Offender Registration Act cannot be used to retroactively extend registration requirements for older incidents. 

"It only affects people with offenses that are at least 15 years old, in many cases, much, much older than that," Aukerman said. 

The Michigan State Police, which maintains the database, is required to follow the court order and "is taking the necessary steps to implement the ruling," the agency said. 

The information listed on the Public Sex Offender Registry is public information provided either by the defendants themselves or from public records, state police said. A typical entry includes a photo of the person, their primary address, their work address, age, physical description, and the court that has the records of the relevant criminal conviction. 

The registry's intent is to "better assist the public in preventing and protecting against the commission of future criminal sexual acts by convicted sex offenders," state police said. 

If you're concerned about an error on the state's registry, Michigan State Police encourages you to contact its sex offender registry unit.