LANSING — A Senate bill would amend the state’s 1994 sex offender registry law to follow federal registry requirements.

But unfortunately, federal officials haven’t revealed those requirements.           

The bill would expand information about ex-cons on the State Police public sex offender registry to include details about vehicles they own, their places of employment and convictions for other crimes.

That would comply with a 2006 federal mandate that requires standardization of information in state registries so they can be integrated into the National Sex Offender Registry. 

However, the U.S. Justice Department hasn’t announced what standardization would entail. It’s up to that department to read what Congress ordered and determine exactly what it means, said Sgt. Matt Bolger, legislative liaison for the State Police.

“Federal law is nowhere near as easy to read as state law is,” he said.

“We’re kind of waiting on that determination from the Department of Justice on what our duties are going to be.”

Once those duties have been determined, Michigan lawmakers can amend state law to comply, Bolger said.

Sen. Wayne Kuipers, R-Holland, is the bill’s sponsor. Darin Ackerman, Kuipers’ chief of staff, said the legislation is intended to get a jump on the federal regulations.

The Senate Judiciary Committee won’t take action on the bill until the regulations are announced, at which point any necessary changes will be made, he said.

“It’s a work in progress, I guess that’s the best way of putting it,” Ackerman said.

In January, the State Police launched a new version of the Michigan registry that features the anticipated changes. Bolger said offenders are not yet required to provide the additional information and his agency isn’t been collecting it.

“There are some data on there, like registration details — last verification date, date of initial registration, date of registration expiration — those all show ‘coming soon.’” Bolger said.

Shelli Weisberg, legislative director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, said the additional information could create problems for individuals other than those in the registry, such as employers.

“It would be unfortunate if an employer chose to hire someone who’s on the registry — because there are so many people who are on the registry who are not dangerous and would be fabulous employees — because having the employer’s place of business connected to that registry would most likely cause hardship to the employer,” she said.

Michael Rogers, vice president of communications for the Small Business Association of Michigan, said his group has not taken a stance on the legislation, but said that it is “on our radar screen.”           

“We’d certainly be willing to work with Sen. Kuipers, because we want to know more about the impact on small business owners,” he said.

Currently, the state’s registry includes offenders’ names, photos, physical characteristics, offenses, addresses and aliases. Employment information is listed only if the offender is a secondary education employee, Bolger said.