Audit reveals Missouri has lost track of 1,259 sex offenders - including nearly 800 of the most serious ex-convicts
- An audit released Monday shows that Missouri has lost track of 1,259 registered sex offenders.
- Nearly 800 of the missing sex offenders are Tier III, meaning they committed the most serious sex crimes such as rape, sodomy and child molestation.
- At a press conference on Monday, State Auditor Nicole Galloway called the findings "disturbing and alarming."
Missouri has lost track of more than 1,200 registered sex offenders, according to an audit released Monday.
State Auditor Nicole Galloway said during a press conference that her findings were "disturbing and alarming" after her figures showed that most of the affected offenders are the most serious class.
"As it stands the sex offender registry really provides a false sense of security," Galloway added.
The 1,259 ex-convicts that are missing account for nearly 8% of the state's around 16,000 registered sex offender population.
Missouri's sex offenders are split into three "tiers" with the third tier compromising the most serious offenders - those who have committed rape, sodomy and child molestation. Tier III offenders are required to check in with local law enforcement every 90 days for the rest of their lives.
But nearly 800 of the missing sex offenders are Tier III, or 60%.
Sex offenders in Missouri are required to register with local law enforcement, typically with their county sheriff, and keep them abreast to any changes of address.
If they don't update their info as scheduled, law enforcement officials are required to follow up with them. If they can't find them, they are supposed to issue an arrest warrant.
But the audit found that this rarely happens, since 91% of the non-compliant sex offenders did not have warrants out for their arrest.
Galloway told the New York Times that what she heard from law enforcement was that there are "limited resources at the local level" and that "other priorities were put ahead of tracking these sex offenders."
The audit recommends that law enforcement officials follow up on sex offender registry requirements and that the Missouri State Highway Patrol (which maintains the public database) do more to insure that the registry is accurate.
Out-of-date sex offender registries are an issue in other states across the country as well, according to KPLR.
It was revealed in August that Wisconsin doesn't have current information for nearly 3,000 of its more than 25,000 registered sex offenders.
It was a similar story in Massachusetts last year when an audit found that the state didn't have current addresses for 1,769 sex offenders.