Iowa would become the second state to maintain a domestic abuser registry if a bill introduced in the Iowa House becomes law. An offender would be added to the public list after their second conviction. The registry would include their name, photo, conviction date and the county or counties where they committed abuse. Chayce Glienke Baltimore is a lobbyist for the Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence, who actually opposes the bill. “Specifically we don’t speak on behalf of all survivors and certainly there are survivors that support this bill,” she said. “However the coalition opposes this bill specifically because we think it raises some practical and substantive concerns.”
Glienke Baltimore says the registry could provide a false sense of security for people who check to see if a dating partner is on it and don’t find that name. No one spoke in favor of the bill during a House subcommittee hearing this week. On January 1st, Tennessee became the first state in the nation to launch a public domestic violence offender registry.
