On Jan. 1, 2004, a state legislature mandated sexual offender registry was established for Arkansas to keep the public notified of the potential dangers of individuals living within their communities that had previously committed sex crimes.
The database used to compile the name of every sex offender in the state, who are required by law to register within the community or county in which they reside, is vast.
Currently, the names of 11,809 men and women are listed on the Arkansas Crime Information website as being a Risk Level 2 or higher sex offender.
While the site is a great tool for determining if offenders live in your neighborhood simple searches on the site do not always return every offender living within a certain area based on the search criteria used.
While doing research and updating sex offender lists for Sebastian and Crawford counties, which are listed on the pull-down menu under “Public Records” at the top of the main page of this site, Inside Fort Smith has uncovered some flaws in the search engine that are a little disconcerting, as a number of offenders seem to be “hidden” from public scrutiny … unless you know how and where to look.
“There are several reasons you could be experiencing conflicting results: “said Brad Cozart, Repository Administrator for the Arkansas Crime Information Center. “Sometimes it could be as simple as an offender living in one county but working or going to college in another.”
Once an individual goes to the ACIC website at https://www.ark.org/offender-search/index.php and agrees to the disclaimer provision to access the site, they are given the option of searching for offenders by name or location by address, city, county or zip code.
However, different results can show up in the returned information depending on the method used. Searches by city will yield one list of suspects, while a search by county will often list offenders not returned for a city-only search.
Likewise, a search by zip code will often reveal offenders not returned under the other search methods.
Cozart said he was unaware of any cases where registered offenders might show up in one search and not another until Inside Fort Smith pointed out a few specifically.
He also said the state recently signed a contract for new software for the sex offender registry and that he felt the new system would eliminate any “wrinkles” in the system as well.
“Also, you should take into consideration the fact that sex offenders might not be the most trustworthy individuals to start with,” said Cozart. “We get our information from whatever the law enforcement officials give us at the time an offender registers in a city or county. Believe or not, they might tend to give out confusing information to kept from being listed in the actual area in which they live.”
Cozart said the transient nature of some of individuals on the registry also makes it difficult to keep up with their whereabouts.
“They tend to move a lot, for whatever reasons,” said Cozart. “All we can go by is what they tell their local police department or sheriff office. That’s the reason you see a lot of arrests for failure to report changes of address.”
Other flaws exist as well.
During the recent updates to the sex offender lists for Inside Fort Smith, a search in “Crawford County” and “Van Buren” returned the names of 11 offenders who lived on the extreme north side of Fort Smith.
That individual’s name does not elicit a response when a search is done in “Sebastian County” or “Fort Smith”.
So, a search in “Fort Smith returns 113 hits for registered sex offenders while the actual list, compiled by utilizing all search methods and cross referencing the results show 124 offenders who actually live within the city limits.
The issue gets particularly complicated with adjacent towns. For example, a search in “Jenny Lind” returns hits in Greenwood, Fort Smith and Bonanza while a search in “Bonanza” returns five hits for Bonanza, one in Hackett and one in Fort Smith, two of the addresses returned for “Bonanza” are closer to Fort Smith than either of the two other cities listed.
In Crawford County, searching “Rudy” returns results in Rudy, Mountainburg and Cedarville while searching with the Rudy zip code (72952) will return several different results and different individuals.
A search in “Mulberry” turns up results in both Crawford and Franklin counties bit a county-wide search in Franklin County doesn’t show some of the Mulberry residents listed in a specific search for that town.
Cozart said that often when comparing the list from one month to another, individuals that were listed previously might not show up for a various number of reasons.
“They might have moved out of state, they may have gone back to jail or they could have died,” said Cozart.
Cozart pointed out that there is also a tab for “non- mappable” offenders that could account for some of the discrepancies but for the 3707 names listed in that database, the overwhelming majority are either listed as “deceased” or as “confined” in the Arkansas Department of Corrections.
“We try to list those that fall through the cracks — who may not be living where they said they were living when law enforcement goes out to confirm their addresses — in the ‘non-mappable’ section of the site,” said Cozart. “It’s always a work in progress.”
Cozart pointed out that a very small number of names may end up being removed from the list because there is a provision for offenders to petition the state for removal under certain circumstances.
“People are under the impression that once you have been put on the sex offender list that it’s a lifetime deal, and it some cases that is correct,” said Cozart. “But if you are convicted of certain offenses and go fifteen years without being convicted of further sex crimes, a good attorney can probably get you name removed from the registry.”
Cozart says the exceptions are being assessed as a Level 4 offender, convictions of two or more sex crimes, any sort of aggravated charges that result in a conviction and, as of last year, rape.
“We feel like the new software, which we believe we will have up and running within five to six months, will make the site more user friendly,” said Cozart ” I just urge anyone using the site to be as specific as they can and understand that the broader the search, the more opportunity there is for discrepancies.”
