Is your neighbor a convicted sex offender? Hundreds are missing in Jackson County
Jackson County has more convicted sex offenders than any county in Missouri. And hundreds of them are unaccounted for, posing a serious threat to public safety.
Nearly 450 of the county’s 2,200 registered offenders are missing, according to county officials. So where are the non-compliant scofflaws?
“They could be your next-door neighbor,” interim Jackson County Sheriff Darryl Forte said. “They could be at the playground where your grandkids and kids play on a regular basis. We don’t know where they are.”
Forte inherited the mess from former Sheriff Mike Sharp, who resigned under pressure in April. A subsequent assessment of the agency’s sex offender unit unearthed the issue. The findings were shocking, Forte said.
“It’s important that we track those individuals,” he said.
Sharp told The Star that his office had been aggressive in tracking down noncompliant offenders. He blames a lack of staffing and funding for the problem.
An extra detective and administrative assistant were added to the sex offender unit in recent days to tackle the problem. But it’s too soon to assess whether that will be enough.
The law requires those convicted of sex crimes to report to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office in person to update their registration information. An offender must report either every 90 days or every six months, depending on the age of their victim.
They are non-compliant if they fail to report when required to do so, fail to register as a sex offender or live within 1,000 feet of a school or child care facility. Offenders also must report accurate information to the sheriff’s office.
Forte said the department’s outdated sex offender policies have contributed to compliance enforcement issues. Revising the policy, adding staff and enforcing laws already on the books should be high on the sheriff’s priority list.
It’s imperative that county officials know the whereabouts of these offenders. In addition to creating public safety issues, failures such as these erode victims’ confidence in the criminal justice system.
“Not only past victims, but it may prevent future victims from coming forward,” said Victoria Pickering, education and outreach coordinator for the advocacy group Metropolitan Organization to Counter Sexual Assault.
Sharp said his enforcement efforts were hindered because there were not enough deputies available to arrest noncompliant offenders.
“I was the only sheriff that conducted annual sweeps that coordinated with local law enforcement,” Sharp said in an interview. “I brought the compliance rate to within 95 percent. Before I got there (in 2009), it was less than 50 percent.”
Despite Sharp’s defense of his own performance, the numbers tell a different story now. Forte suggested that a lack of leadership resulted in the low compliance rate.
Forte and other county officials must act swiftly to locate hundreds of sex offenders and protect the community.
“Historically, sex crimes have pretty low prosecution and conviction rates,” Pickering said. “Given that, it can be concerning for the community where one of the processes that hold offenders accountable isn’t working.”
This story was originally published July 23, 2018 at 5:30 AM.