A state audit found the Georgia sex offender registry full of old addresses, entry errors and outdated software.
The registry contains "incomplete, inaccurate and outdated information" about the number and characteristics of offenders living or working in an area, the Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts report shows.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is responsible for maintaining the state sex offender registry. But with only two employees running more than 17,000 sex offenders in a database and a budget continually sinking, GBI officials said they believe the audit was unnecessary.
"It was a complete waste of our time and taxpayers' money," GBI spokesman John Bankhead said. "Everything they told us, we knew."
The state keeps a database of registered sex offenders, but each sheriff's office also must operate its own registry to keep up with sex offenders at the local level. That local information, in turn, is loaded into the state database.
The Georgia Department of Corrections is another cog in the wheel, responsible for notifying state and local officials when offenders are released from jail or granted parole.
When a sex offender moves into Walker County, it's Sgt. Mason Brewer's job to take down the person's home address and work information and get a photo. He's supposed to recheck the information every six months.
But he has to log everything twice - once to the Walker registry and then to the state's. Even the software is different.
"It would be nice if we were all on the same system," he said. "Right now it's redundant."
The state audit says inconsistencies in updating from local registries to the state put residents at greater risk.
Local sheriff's offices say they are following the law to keep up the registry.
Most North Georgia sheriff's offices keep the registry on the sheriff's website and have one full-time custodian for the records.
"The burden falls on the sheriff's offices," said Whitfield County Lt. Nancy Chadwick. She heads the Crime Investigation Division, which maintains that county's sex offender registry.
SEX OFFENDERS BY COUNTYCounty Total registered In jailCatoosa 109 15Chattooga 139 77Dade 25 3Gordon 101 15Murray 80 6Walker 111 27Whitfield 180 13Source: Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts
The Walker County Sheriff's Office spends $50,000 to $75,000 annually to maintain its registry, Detective Mike Freeman said.
The state audit also identified areas where the Georgia Department of Corrections should improve and said management should work with parole offices, where registration deadlines for offenders are not being met consistently.
Stan Shepherd, manager of the Georgia Department of Corrections Sex Offender Administration, said his department already has made changes to improve the system through updated training.
"[The parole officers] are doing everything they can to make sure [offenders] don't reoffend," Shepherd said.
FINDING SOLUTIONS
State lawmakers are questioning the audit findings and plan to address them before the next session starts in January.
House Speaker Rep. David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, has asked the chairman of the Judiciary Non-Civil Committee to "review the report and determine the need for further legislative action," Ralston spokesman Marshall Guest said in an e-mail.
But lawmen say more regulations are not the solution.
The list needs to be narrowed to people who are a threat to society, eliminating those who committed minor sex crimes, Bankhead said. Such a database would be more manageable for police and practical for users, he said.
Police also must keep up with continually changing laws, said Chadwick, who is on Georgia's Sex Offender Registration Task Force.
If an offender committed a crime before June 2006, no restrictions apply to the place in which the person can live, but after 2006 various restrictions apply depending on the year, she said.
Contact Joy Lukachick at 423-757-6659 or at jlukachick@timesfreepress.com.