Over the past year, PARSOL ran a campaign to hold the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) accountable to a law then-Governor Wolf signed in 2018, requiring PSP to implement a telephonic verification system for Pennsylvania’s Megan’s Law registrants in Tiers II and III — those required to verify their information two or four times a year.
After months of getting the runaround from PSP, we escalated to the Governor’s office and the House Judiciary Committee. When that didn’t work, we escalated further, calling on State Representatives Emily Kinkead (D-Allegheny) and John Schlegel (R-Lebanon) to intervene.
During the PSP budget hearing on March 12, 2026, Rep. Kinkead directly called out the acting commissioner for the agency’s failure to implement the required system. Like his staff for the past year, he was unable to answer the question. Rep. Schlegel followed up in writing with PSP and learned that, over the past eight years, only 520 eligible registrants had been approved for telephone registration — out of more than 8,000 potentially eligible.
We then launched a messaging campaign to the PA General Assembly: “If the PSP cannot implement a simple telephone verification system in eight years, why should they receive more funding in the forthcoming budget cycle?”
Today, we’re declaring victory.
PSP has now added information about telephonic verification to the Megan’s Law reminder letter and its website, and the verification call itself takes less than a minute.
Verification Call Recording (caller information redacted)
This win is the result of our sustained advocacy on behalf of registered citizens of Pennsylvania. Our team estimates the campaign cost over 100 hours of staff time and more than $1,100 in expenses — all to force the state to follow through on a policy its own government had already required by law.
