By Dan Satterberg, King County Prosecuting Attorney

Ed. Note: This column originally appeared in the Jan. 10 edition of Dan Satterberg's "The Prosecutor's Post."

It was 20 years ago when the Washington State Legislature began deliberations on comprehensive recommendations to overhaul our state's sex offender laws. The calls for reform arose, as is often the case, from terrible tragedies.

As we begin the 2010 legislative session on Jan. 11, we should pause to look back at the positive outcomes achieved two decades ago. It is particularly important that we do so as we turn to face the new challenges arising from the tragic and outrageous attacks on this state's law enforcement officers.

The Community Protection Act, as it was known, was enacted in 1990 in response to two violent sex crimes that sparked widespread public outrage and concern throughout our state.

First, a young woman named Diane Ballasiotes was abducted and murdered in a downtown parking garage by a dangerous psychopath who had walked away from his work release bed.

Not long thereafter, a 7-year-old Tacoma boy riding a bicycle through his neighborhood was abducted, sexually assaulted and sexually mutilated by another sex offender, who had recently been released from prison. This man had a long history of sexually assaulting children, and many who had dealt with him in prison knew it was not a matter of "if" he would attack again, only "when."

From these two tragedies and the accompanying public uproar came a remarkable change in how our state dealt with violent sex offenders.

Gov. Booth Gardner convened the Governor's Task Force on Community Protection and appointed King County Prosecuting Attorney Norm Maleng to chair the task force with the mission to overhaul our approach to sex crimes, victim support and community safety.

Ida Ballasiotes and Helen Harlow, the mothers of the victims in the two cases, served on the task force.

In 1990, the Community Protection Act was unanimously passed into law. It provided a type of protection that made Washington state the national model for addressing sexual violence and sexual predators. Many other states followed Washington's lead in the ensuing decade.

The Community Protection Act increased sentences for all sex offenses, implemented sex offender registration and community notification requirements and developed the nation's first civil commitment laws for sexually violent predators.

Twenty years later, the legislature begins another session in the aftermath of a series of crimes that share a common theme – the violent targeting of those whose job it is to keep us safe.

There will be calls for reform, for task forces and for change. If the history and product of the 1990 Community Protection Task Force is any guide, these calls for change should be answered.

We owe it to the victims, their families and the public to conduct a complete review of our justice system and to continue to improve it to protect public safety.