Sex offender not reporting to state police arrested for child rape

Pennsylvania State Police are looking at how to improve notification of local police when a Megan's Law offender fails to check in as required, reported the Associated Press.

That's what authorities say happened with in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania where Harold Leroy Herr allegedly kidnapping a 5-year-old girl July 11and sexually assaulting her.

Herr is 73-years-old and was required to check in with authorities in person four times annually for his 1990 conviction for kidnapping and child rape. He served 20 years -- his maximum sentence -- and was released in May 2010. He apparently checked in as required until this spring.

He failed to check in during a 10-day period ending May 7, according to Southern Regional Police, who charged him July 12 with the Megan's Law violation.

By then, authorities were looking at Herr for the abduction.

"We make every effort to make notifications as expeditiously as possible and continually assess our operations for ways to improve efficiency and timeliness," said a state police spokeswoman.

But there's no time frame under Megan's Law in which state police must notify local departments about a person failing to check in, said the spokeswoman. The agency is looking into generating automated notifications, and would have to create a system to do so.

State police have been dealing with a notification backlog tied to the Adam Walsh Act, which required that some 12,500 Megan's Law registrants in the state register with state police between Dec. 20 and March 20.

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