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YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri |
May 29, 2002
Report No. 2002-41
Changes
to sex offender registration laws and better monitoring practices could increase
compliance and alert more citizens
This audit examined
compliance rates of the current sex offender registration laws, which require
Missouri�s 8,000 known offenders to register with local law enforcement.
Under current law, all convicted sex offenders have to register within 10
days of coming into a county and verify their information yearly or every
90 days, in most cases. The
public can then obtain a listing of sexual offenders living in their area.
In a detailed review of
registration lists in seven counties, auditors found 36 percent of the offenders
listed had not met their most recent registration requirement.
Missouri legislators first
established the registration law in 1994 and have since revised the law several
times. Some revisions to the laws
and court decisions have affected the degree of compliance.
The following highlights our findings:
State Supreme Court decision exempts half of offenders on probation from
registering
An October 2000 Missouri Supreme Court decision effectively released
half of all sexual offenders sentenced to probation from having to register.
This decision changed the event triggering registration to an offender
�coming into� a county. As a
result, if an offender already lives in the county and stays in the county
through their probation, they do not have to register.
Auditors found 57 percent of sex offenders sentenced to probation since
1997 had current addresses in the same county they received their sentence.
It should be noted that on May 8, 2002, the General Assembly passed
legislation to address this issue. This
legislation (Senate Bill 1070) now awaits the Governor�s approval.
(See page 9)
Some sex offenders not on state Family Care Safety Registry
Auditors found more than 500 sexual offenders who may not be included in
the Family Care Safety Registry. Citizens
can turn to this registry to receive a criminal background check on a family
caregiver they want to hire. But
auditors found sexual offenders receiving a �suspended imposition of
sentence� will not be identified in inquiries to the registry after the end of
their probation period. This
sentence allows an offender�s criminal record to be closed at the end of
probation, which makes the record unavailable for the registry. (See page 12)
Other states release more detailed offender information
State
law allows county law enforcement to only release names, addresses and the
crimes of the registered offenders to the public.
Auditors found other state offender lists include an offender�s picture, physical description, employer address and vehicles driven as well as
victim information, such as age and sex. In
addition, auditors found three counties charging citizens from $10 to $20 for a
copy of the list, which is not authorized under state law. (See
page 10)
Half
of noncompliant offenders found employed, in phone book
Auditors
found half of the 803 noncompliant offenders noted in our seven-county review
were employed in Missouri in 2001. In
addition, auditors found another 76 noncompliant offenders listed in the phone
book. Local law enforcement
officials indicated inadequate resources prevented the pursuit of these
noncompliant offenders. (See page
12)
Few
parole/probation violations issued for noncompliant offenders
Auditors
reviewed 11 offenders who had failed their most recent verification requirement,
and found only one received a probation violation for the failure.
In addition, auditors reviewed 55 offenders in Jackson County and found
31 violating registration requirements, but state officials did not issue a
probation violation. (See page 16)
The Department of Corrections followed up on these 55 cases and presented
the results in their response on page 18.
Highway
Patrol should quicken planned improvements
The
Missouri State Highway Patrol, which is required by state law to maintain the
offender registration information, does not track the dates offenders verify
their information. As a result,
patrol staff cannot tell who has met their annual or 90-day verification
requirement. Patrol staff are
developing an enhanced sexual offender database allowing data entry on
registration and verification dates. This
new system will identify offenders who have not met their last verification
requirement and generate an automatic notice to local law enforcement officials. (See page 19)
