HOUSTON (AP) - More than 2,000 illegal immigrant sex offenders, whose names were absent from a public statewide database because they were deported, have been restored to the Texas Department of Public Safety public Internet site after a Houston police officer's slaying a month ago.

Andy Kahan, director of the crime victim's office for Houston Mayor Bill White, said Thursday he asked the Texas DPS to review its policy to not include deported offenders in the public database after an illegal immigrant, Juan Leonardo Quintero, was arrested Sept. 26 for gunning down Officer Rodney Johnson.

Quintero, 32, now jailed for Johnson's killing, in 1998 was charged with indecency with a child and the next year was given deferred adjudication, a form of probation, in the case. Kahan said when he ran Quintero's name through the DPS public online site, there was no record of him.

"First I thought he was on probation and didn't register and there should be a warrant out for his arrest," Kahan said. "I find out he actually did register and was deported. I was told by DPS officials they remove all sex offenders who are deported from the public database.

"My point was: What's the harm with just listing them as deported? I was stunned." Kahan wrote Col. Thomas A. Davis, the director of the agency, arguing "there is no downside" allowing the public to access deported sex offenders' public records.

"The public is our best set of 'eyes' and could possibly alert federal and or local authorities if they spot an offender who has re-entered the country," Kahan wrote.

Davis agreed, responding this week with a note to Kahan that the policy had been changed. "I give them credit," Kahan said. "At least they obviously saw it should be changed and actually made the change."

The decision puts 2,084 names of deported offenders back on the list that's accessible to the public, DPS spokeswoman Tela Mange said. The names had been kept off the public list because the deported offenders no longer were considered Texas residents and no longer had an obligation to register in the state, she said.

"Evidently, he came back and obviously didn't register," she said of Quintero. Another database that law-enforcement officers and agencies can access continued to show the names of the deported offenders, although the names had been purged from the public list.

Convicted sex offenders in Texas have been required since 1991 to register. Refinements to the law in the last decade obligate most of those convicted since 1970 to submit their names, addresses and other personal information to their local law-enforcement agency at least once a year.

The material is published on the Internet site maintained by the Texas DPS and now includes some 46,000 names, triple the number when it first went online in 1999.

"We always ask our citizens to be our eyes and ears out there," Kahan said. "They need to know what they're looking for."

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By MICHAEL GRACZYK Associated Press Writer (

Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) AP-NY-10-26-06 1704EDT