Keeping eyes on sex offenders

Keeping track of nearly 100 people living in one county may not sound too difficult. But when those people are convicted sex offenders and the resources to track them are limited, problems can arise.

According to the sheriff department's online sex offender registry, 97 convicted sex offenders are living in Cape Girardeau County, 69 of whom are in the city of Cape Girardeau. Of the 97 total offenders, the county has lost contact with about 20, according to sheriff's Sgt. Sharon Jones.

Contact by telephone has been lost, and mail sent to their former address has been returned with no forwarding address, she said.

Convicted sex offenders are required by law to check in with their local county sheriff's office either every 90 days or yearly, depending on the crime they were convicted of.

The lost offenders most likely have moved out of the county, and some are suspected of having moved out the state, but the sheriff's office has no way of knowing for sure.

Jones routinely checks with the jail, local police departments, and the Department of Revenue for newly issued licenses. But doing more in-depth searches is not possible, she said.

"That's a full-time job that I don't have time for," she said.

Jones' lament is a common one for those in charge of keeping track of sex offenders. While she is employed in the sheriff's communication department, regularly performing dispatch duties, she is also the sheriff's representative to whom convicted sex offenders provide their information, such as addresses, which is later placed on the county's sex offender online registry.

The person in charge of keeping that Web site updated, Lt. David James, is also the head of criminal investigation for the sheriff's department. Having additional staff could help things run smoother, he said.

"Having more manpower is something every department needs," he said.

Many convicted offenders are not committing crimes, according to James. No serious situations have resulted from the limited resources, but there is room for improvement, he said.

While a proposed senate bill aims to alter some of the definitions and penalties for sex crimes, the proposal currently contains nothing specific to help local law agencies monitor convicted sex offenders outside of GPS tracking.

One possible problem is how the sex offender registry is designed, relying on the offenders themselves to update local law enforcement agencies of their whereabouts.

"Short of that, you almost have to have a detective assigned to keep track of them," James said, adding that's not possible for Cape Girardeau County.

Tammy Gwaltney, director of the Southeast Missouri Network Against Sexual Violence, doesn't put much faith in convicted sex offenders' reporting habits.

"I don't think we should delude ourselves into thinking they [offenders] are going to behave as they should," she said.

Gwaltney, director of the non-profit organization since 2000 and mother of a 14-year-old girl, said she was not surprised the county has lost touch with convicted offenders. Limited resources is something both her agency and law enforcement has to cope with.

While many convicted sex offenders comply with required registering, others move so much that keeping tabs on them can be difficult, especially when some move between three and four times a year.

"Sex offenders tend to be a very transient type of population," said sheriff's detective Karen Buchheit.

Buchheit, who investigates domestic violence, sex crimes and child abuse, said another difficulty is determining if the address given by a sex offender is for the location they actually live or just where they receive mail.

In December, the sheriff's office attempted to contact several convicted sex offenders believed to have been violating the law by living too close to a school or day care. They are prohibited from living less than 1,000 feet, one-fifth of a mile, from a day care facility or school.

Working with the Cape Girardeau County prosecutor's office, the sheriff's department sent out 30 letters to convicted offenders who lived within that 1,000-foot radius. The offenders were required to respond with proof they had lived at the residence before the state law went into effect on Aug. 28, 2004, making them exempt.

The sheriff's department determined that the 25 who responded had lived at their residence before Aug. 28, 2004. Three of the five who did not respond also have not come in for their required registration, according to Buchheit. The sheriff's department will go to the prosecutor with the information on those three, asking for arrest warrants, she said.

The other two had lived near a day care run out of residence, but those day cares are no longer operating, according to James.

Local residents are one major tool in helping track offenders that requires no funding.

Every week residents contact the Missouri State Highway Patrol between 30 and 50 times, pointing out discrepancies on the Web site, according to Missouri State Highway Patrol Capt. Tim McGrail. By contrast, Cape Girardeau County receives only one or two public contacts about the site every six months, James said.

Those residents have helped in making the highway patrol's online sex offender registry more accurate in the past year than ever before.

"The public's seeing it, and they're the ones doing a great job," McGrail said.

"It takes a community to be vigilant and watch out for children," Gwaltney said. "It can't just be law enforcement's responsibility."

Gwaltney said parents need to talk to about the dangers of sex offenders to their children. She warned that children should not just be wary of strangers.

"Over 90 percent of the time, the victim knows the perpetrator," Gwaltney said, stressing parents should be aware of those in contact with their children.

Every year, Gwaltney's agency sees about 500 children for sexual abuse in a 10-county region, stretching from the Bootheel north to Perry County and west to Wayne County. When the agency first opened in 1997, the network saw 42.

Around 100 adults also come to the agency for counseling, she said.

kmorrison@semissourian.com

335-6611 extension 127