janelle
05-16-2005, 09:37 PM
KBI Offender Registry operates under strain
by Roger Cornish and Rebekah Dryden
KWCH 12 Eyewitness News
Monday, May 16, 2005
In just 12 years, the KBI’s Offender Registry has grown from nothing, to a database with information on thousands of people convicted of sex crimes, murder, kidnapping and manslaughter.
Everyone on the registry stays on it for ten years after they’re released from prison. Anyone who molests a child under 14-years-old and anyone convicted of a second sex crime goes on the list for life.
“The idea being that people who have been convicted of certain offense have a very high chance of re-offending,” says the KBI’s Kyle Smith.
The list gets longer every year.
And the longer it gets, the harder it is for two Topeka KBI workers to keep tabs on every offender.
“Some of these people committed pretty horrendous crimes against children,” Smith says, “so complying with a low-level felony about registration may not be a big intimidation to them.”
If it’s not, and an offender doesn’t respond to a quarterly verification letter, the KBI removes their address from the site and notifies the sheriff’s office in their county.
“The possibility is that they are back re-offending and they are purposely avoiding us,” Smith says.
But it’s also possible they’ve just moved and failed to notify authorities.
“The ladies who keep track of these individuals at the KBI tell me we have an average of about four moves a year for each of these 3,700 [offenders],” says Smith.
That makes it especially challenging for the KBI to keep track of them. Since no one physically checks on offenders on a regular basis, Eyewitness News producers randomly selected five names from the list and went to the addresses on the website to see if the offenders really live there.
We talked with neighbors at each address and, in some cases, with family members as well. All five checked out: each was living at the address listed on the website.
But that doesn’t mean authorities know where every registered offender lives. The numbers vary from day to day, but, according to the KBI, there are typically about 30 offenders who have completely disappeared.
They’re listed separately on the site, on the Absconder page.
“We’d love the public to take a look at that file in case they know where any of those individuals are,” says Smith.
Another 300 offenders are listed normally on the site by name, city, county and zip, but have no street address next to their name. Instead, the entry says, “address being verified.”
According to Smith, these are offenders who haven’t responded to their quarterly letter but have not necessarily disappeared. In cases like these, the KBI will work together with sheriff’s officers to try to locate offenders before issuing a warrant for them and putting them on the absconder list.
“One reason [for that],” explains Smith, “is that we had an unfortunate incident in Manhattan where a person disappeared, left, and we didn't know that. So we still had this guy's name and his address on the website. Somebody else moved into that apartment and the neighbors treated him very badly. He couldn't figure out why everybody hated him. It was because they all thought he was the sex offender. So, now, once we can't verify their location, we take the address off the website; we just leave the county and say ‘being verified’. Now, once we've verified that they're not where they're supposed to be and we can't verify them being registered any place else, we'll contact the sheriff's office and ask them to issue a warrant”
Right now there are warrants for 28 offenders throughout the state. Of those, seven are from Wichita. In Sedgwick County, 58 offenders have no address listed on the site.
by Roger Cornish and Rebekah Dryden
KWCH 12 Eyewitness News
Monday, May 16, 2005
In just 12 years, the KBI’s Offender Registry has grown from nothing, to a database with information on thousands of people convicted of sex crimes, murder, kidnapping and manslaughter.
Everyone on the registry stays on it for ten years after they’re released from prison. Anyone who molests a child under 14-years-old and anyone convicted of a second sex crime goes on the list for life.
“The idea being that people who have been convicted of certain offense have a very high chance of re-offending,” says the KBI’s Kyle Smith.
The list gets longer every year.
And the longer it gets, the harder it is for two Topeka KBI workers to keep tabs on every offender.
“Some of these people committed pretty horrendous crimes against children,” Smith says, “so complying with a low-level felony about registration may not be a big intimidation to them.”
If it’s not, and an offender doesn’t respond to a quarterly verification letter, the KBI removes their address from the site and notifies the sheriff’s office in their county.
“The possibility is that they are back re-offending and they are purposely avoiding us,” Smith says.
But it’s also possible they’ve just moved and failed to notify authorities.
“The ladies who keep track of these individuals at the KBI tell me we have an average of about four moves a year for each of these 3,700 [offenders],” says Smith.
That makes it especially challenging for the KBI to keep track of them. Since no one physically checks on offenders on a regular basis, Eyewitness News producers randomly selected five names from the list and went to the addresses on the website to see if the offenders really live there.
We talked with neighbors at each address and, in some cases, with family members as well. All five checked out: each was living at the address listed on the website.
But that doesn’t mean authorities know where every registered offender lives. The numbers vary from day to day, but, according to the KBI, there are typically about 30 offenders who have completely disappeared.
They’re listed separately on the site, on the Absconder page.
“We’d love the public to take a look at that file in case they know where any of those individuals are,” says Smith.
Another 300 offenders are listed normally on the site by name, city, county and zip, but have no street address next to their name. Instead, the entry says, “address being verified.”
According to Smith, these are offenders who haven’t responded to their quarterly letter but have not necessarily disappeared. In cases like these, the KBI will work together with sheriff’s officers to try to locate offenders before issuing a warrant for them and putting them on the absconder list.
“One reason [for that],” explains Smith, “is that we had an unfortunate incident in Manhattan where a person disappeared, left, and we didn't know that. So we still had this guy's name and his address on the website. Somebody else moved into that apartment and the neighbors treated him very badly. He couldn't figure out why everybody hated him. It was because they all thought he was the sex offender. So, now, once we can't verify their location, we take the address off the website; we just leave the county and say ‘being verified’. Now, once we've verified that they're not where they're supposed to be and we can't verify them being registered any place else, we'll contact the sheriff's office and ask them to issue a warrant”
Right now there are warrants for 28 offenders throughout the state. Of those, seven are from Wichita. In Sedgwick County, 58 offenders have no address listed on the site.