I-Team Extras: Arson Registry
May 17, 2008 12:08 am US/Eastern
Congress Considering Arson Registry
New registry would work in a similar fashion to sex offender registry
BRANDON, Fla. (CBS) ―
Nearly 500 people a year die in fires started by arsonists. The crime costs Americans $1 Billion in lost property every year. Now, to help combat arson there are changes pending in Congress.
The CBS4 I-Team has learned of a new plan to track people who commit arson while also warning you whenever an arsonist moves into your neighborhood.
Investigative reporter Stephen Stock uncovered the details on a little-known proposal that even most arson investigators don't know about right now.
"It's very hard to take it's very hard to keep your head up high," says arson victim Andrew Balser while showing off what's left of his home and his life.
"Some guy's ruined my life," Balser told the CBS4 I-Team recently.
Balser described what he went through: four years of battles with insurance companies, banks and builders and still no resolution. "I lost out all together everything I owned," Balser said.
All, he said, because back in February, 2004, an arsonist burned his Brandon home.
"It started with the front window being broke," he said.
Not once but twice.
"It didn't get burned all the way down I guess he figured he didn't finish the job," Balser said while describing how his home was ultimately destroyed by the second fire set on his front porch.
In fact, four other homes in Andrew Balser's neighborhood in Brandon, east of Tampa, also were either destroyed or heavily damaged. All those fires investigators believe, were set by an arsonist.
"I was upset because this was the second time and that house across the road that's rebuilt there the same thing happened too," Balser said, recounting the second fire and the scene he came upon, with firefighters and police everywhere around his home.
And it's because of cases just like Andrew Balser's that a new federal Arsonist Registry bill is aimed at helping.
It is a bill that is now before Congress in Washington, D.C.
If it passes and is signed by the President into law, here's how it would work: The bill would set up a national database of convicted arsonists even after they are released from prison.
The bill would require that communities and work places be told when an arsonist moves into the neighborhood. This provision would work much like Florida's current sex offender law. It would provide federal money to help pay for this.
The proposed bill will not be retroactive. That means that people convicted of past arsons will not be included on the registry unless they are convicted of arson in the future.
"We want to make sure that people are tracked," south Florida Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart explained. Diaz-Balart is one of several US House co-sponsors of the bill.
"That neighborhoods know when arsonists are in their midst," US Representative Lincoln Diaz-Balart told the CBS4 I-Team.
The Republican from Miami says if this bill becomes law, this arson registry will empower residents by informing them.
"There will be a registry that will notify it will be on-line people will be able to know where arsonists reside and or work and then depending on how recurring their criminal activity has been then the length of time for the registration," Representative Diaz-Balart said.
That means that unlike Florida's current sex offender registry, arsonists will be able to drop off the list if they don't start another fire within five years after their first convictions. And under the current provisions of the bill, they won't be on this arson registry list for life unless they commit three or more acts of arson.
While he wishes that the bill would be applied retroactively, Oakland Park Fire Rescue Chief Don Widing loves this idea. Chief Widing has worked in fire investigations for more than 30 years. "The bill is a good starting point. I would prefer that if someone were registered, they are registered for life," Chief Widing said.
Even so, Widing thinks this bill would serve as a strong tool to help investigators, especially in cases of mysterious arson fires.
"It will be an excellent tool because with it, for the first time to an immediate database to give us an idea where we can look first for persons who may have a tendency to commit the horrendous crime of arson," Chief Widing said.
Chief Widing says neither he, nor any other fire investigator in South Florida whom he talked with had ever heard of this proposed arsonist registry. He was thankful that the CBS4 I-Team brought the idea to his attention.
In fact, in a spot check of nearly a dozen different fire officials in Broward and Miami-Dade County, none had heard of this proposed law. All thought it would be a useful and needed tool to help solve arsons and track those who liked to set fires.
"There (are) plenty of studies that show that some people have a need or compulsion to start fires," Chief Widing said in comparing some arsonists and their compulsions with sex offenders. "Some of them (arsonists) are literally excited by it."
"In my 32 years of experience, I'm reminded of a half dozen (cases) in my career where they (the arsonists) were repeat offenders," Chief Widing said. "They (the arsonists) needed to get some rehabilitative treatment. Otherwise they would continue to set fires and still become more progressive in their crimes and take bigger risks."
When CBS4's Stephen Stock asked Chief Widing "How could as an investigator use this bill as a tool?" the Chief had a quick response.
"If you are the convicted arsonist and you are on the registry then we would engage with local law enforcement agencies and we would come knocking on your door," Chief Widing said.
The investigators would come knocking if suddenly mysterious fires started breaking out in a neighborhood where a convicted arsonist lived just like Andrew Balser's neighborhood.
Miami-Dade's fire marshal thinks the bill is a great idea. "It would be just one more tool to add to other arsons," Chief Manny Mena said.
Chief Mena told the CBS4 I-Team that he had also never heard of this idea until the I-Team approached his office.
"This would be a great tool so they could have a national database that they could tap into and look at cases as they're following them up. In the long run of course it would benefit us because they would close more of these cases than is happening now," Chief Mena said.
Even though his neighbor was never charged with the arson of his home, Andrew Balser and his neighbors are convinced that more information --and this proposed law--would have helped them.
The proposed arsonist registry law is called House Resolution or HR 1759. The proposed bill already has passed the United States House of Representatives and is currently before the U.S. Senate.
The proposed law does raise questions about civil liberties because it would, like the sex offender registry, mark arsonists in the public sphere after those arsonists served their time in prison.
But when the CBS4 I-Team contacted the American Civil Liberties Union, both here in Miami and in Washington, D.C., a spokesman said this bill was not on their list of legislative concerns at this point. And the ACLU was not in a position to comment on it.
The neighbor of Andrew Balser was released from state prison after serving just about two years on his arson conviction. Again, no one has ever been arrested for the two arsons at Andrew Balser's home.
A woman who answered the phone at Balser's neighbor's house said the neighbor would not want to talk about our story or the idea of an arsonist registry. Despite attempts to leave a message the neighbor did not return the CBS4 I-Team's calls.
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I-Team Extras: Arson Registry
