CA: Sex-offender registry loses track of ex-convicts.

January 8, 2003

By Cathy Redfern

SANTA CRUZ — County law-enforcement agencies have a better record of keeping track of sex offenders than the state, which cannot account for 33,000, but the whereabouts of 88 offenders in the county are unknown.

That’s according to an Associated Press investigation into the success of Megan’s Law, which requires convicted sex offenders to register with local police agencies each year after release from prison.

Department of Justice data on every ex-convict who showed up in California’s sex registry between 1946 and Nov. 27, 2002, shows that 44 percent of the 76,350 who registered at least once are unaccounted for. In Santa Cruz County, 20 percent of 433 are unaccounted for.

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Source: © 2003 SantaCruzSentinel.com