    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book I)]
    [June 22, 1996]
    [Pages 954-955]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    The President's Radio Address
    June 22, 1996

        Good morning. Today I want to talk with you about keeping our
    families safe and secure, and especially about how we can help parents
    to protect their children.
        Since I took office we've worked hard to combat the crime and
    violence that has become all too familiar to too many Americans. We
    passed a sweeping crime bill in 1994, against steep opposition from
    partisan politicians and special interest group pressure. We're now
    putting 100,000 new police officers on America's streets in community
    policing. Nearly half of them are already funded. We banned 19 deadly
    assault weapons, passed the Violence Against Women Act to help our
    communities resist domestic violence. We passed the Brady bill, and
    already it's stopped over 60,000 felons, fugitives, and stalkers from
    buying a gun.
        We're helping our communities give children something to say yes to,
    positive programs and good role models to help them stay away from crime
    and drugs and gangs. These laws are making a real difference across our
    country. In city after city and town after town, crime and violence are
    finally coming down. Crime is coming down this year overall in America
    for the 4th year in a row. But we all know we've got a long way to go
    before our streets are safe again.
        And as we move forward, we have to remember we're not just fighting
    against crime, we're fighting for something: for peace of mind, for the
    freedom to walk around the block at night and feel safe, for the
    security of neighborhoods that aren't plagued by drugs, where you can
    leave your doors unlocked and not worry about your children playing in
    the yard. We're fighting to restore a sense of community, and most of
    all, we're fighting for our children and their future.
        Nothing is more important than keeping our children safe. We have
    taken decisive steps to help families protect their children, especially
    from sex offenders, people who, according to study after study, are
    likely to commit their crimes again and again. We've all read too many
    tragic stories about young people victimized by repeat offenders. That's
    why, in the crime bill, we required every State in the country to
    compile a registry of sex offenders and gave States the power to notify
    communities about child

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    sex offenders and violent sex offenders that move into their
    neighborhoods.
        But that wasn't enough, and last month I signed Megan's Law that
    insists that States tell a community whenever a dangerous sexual
    predator enters its midst. Too many children and their families have
    paid a terrible price because parents didn't know about the dangers
    hidden in their own neighborhood. Megan's Law, named after a 7-year-old
    girl taken so wrongly at the beginning of her life, will help to prevent
    more of these terrible crimes.
        Now we must take the next step. Senator Biden and Senator Gramm have
    introduced bipartisan legislation to develop a national registry to
    track sexual offenders and child molesters across the country. They're
    on the right track, but we have to move forward now, and we can. Today
    I'm directing the Attorney General to report back in 60 days with a plan
    to guarantee our police officers this information right away. We must
    make sure police officers in every State can get the information they
    need from any State to track sex offenders down and bring them to
    justice when they commit new crimes. The police officer in Cleveland
    should be able to get information on all known sex offenders in
    Cleveland, whether they committed their crimes in New York or Los
    Angeles. Every bit of information we have about the people who commit
    these crimes should be available to law enforcement wherever and
    whenever they need it.
        The crime bill laid the foundation for this national registry by
    requiring States to track sexual offenders within their borders. Megan's
    Law makes sure parents get this information so they can take steps to
    watch out for their children. Now I want the Attorney General to work
    with the States and the Congress to link this information together to
    make it available to law enforcement at every level in every State.
    Police officers will be able to prevent more crimes and catch more
    criminals if they can share and compare the latest information we have.
        We respect people's rights, but there is no right greater than a
    parent's right to raise a child in safety and love. That's why the law
    should follow those who prey on America's children wherever they go,
    State to State, town to town.
        We'll never be able to eliminate crime completely. But as long as
    crime is so commonplace that we don't even look up when horror after
    horror leads the evening news, we know we've got a long way to go. Yes,
    the crime rate is coming down for 4 years in a row. And, yes, our
    strategies of 100,000 police, the Brady law, the assault weapons ban,
    the domestic violence law, the youth prevention programs, these things
    are helping. But I won't be satisfied until America is once again a
    place where people who see a report of a serious crime are shocked, not
    numb to it.
        We can make that America real. We know we can if we work together
    and put our children first.
        Thanks for listening.

    Note: The address was recorded at 12:23 p.m. on June 21 at McCormick
    Place in Chicago, IL, for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on June 22.