Sex offender registries are often inaccurate and incomplete, federal investigators found during a recent audit. Due to incompatibility between some state registries and the FBI's national registry, 22% of state-identified sex offenders go unreported to the national data base. U.S. Justice Department investigators warned that inaccurate and missing data are preventing police and the public from accurately identifying dangerous pedophiles and other sex crimes offenders in their communities.
"As a result, members of the public will not have the information they need to assess the threat posed by sex offenders in their communities," cautioned a statement issued by the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General.
With 114,000 registered sex offenders, twice that of Florida and 10 times that of North Carolina, California leads the nation in number of registered sexual predators. Errors in the state or national data base may put communities at risk but may also unfairly target innocent individuals, warned criminal defense attorney Stephen Rodriguez.
Since the mid-1990s multiple sex offender registries have sprung up across the nation, including the National Sex Offenders Registry maintained by the FBI and individual state registries operated by each of the 50 states. There are wide variations in the information included, who may use the directories, how they can be searched and how locations are reported. For example, California provides sex offender locations by proximity to local parks or schools. North Carolina locates offenders by less helpful latitude and longitude.
Investigators also found that some state files are rejected by the national data base due to inconsistencies in data reporting and formatting. They concluded that sex offender records are "inconsistent and incomplete."
"Neither law enforcement officials nor the public can rely on the registries for identifying registered sex offenders, particularly those who are fugitives," investigators concluded. The audit revealed that some communities purposely omit warrant information from registry data to avoid the expense of extraditing undesirable fugitives they don't want living among them. Some communities also omitted data to avoid revealing that a large number of sex offenders reside within their boundaries.
Inaccurate registry data hampers police investigations and places community residents at risk. It also unfairly stigmatizes individuals who are inaccurately reported to be sex offenders. Under a law passed in 2006, states have until next year to meet national sex-offender registration standards.
