GA- CBS 46 Investigates: Out Of The Picture

This is one of the worst cases of reporting I have ever seen, note my comments below:

7-31-2008 Georgia:

ATLANTA -- A CBS 46 investigation has uncovered countless breaches in Georgia's Sex Offender registry.

Hundreds of convicted criminals whose names are on the registry have no pictures on the state's official Web site. And those offenders could be living next door to you.

-OK, does the registry show the address, and if so, can't people figure out what the address next door to them is?

CBS 46 investigative reporter Wendy Saltzman questioned the Georgia Bureau of Investigation about whose responsibility it is to keep the state's Web site up to date. "It's ours," responded GBI spokesman John Bankhead.

A four-week CBS 46 investigation found the GBI and local law enforcement officers have failed to post hundreds of metro Atlanta sex offenders' pictures on the state's official registry because of backlogs and miscommunications.

"There are a lot of photographs that need to be updated. There are photographs that need to be added to those that don't have photographs," Bankhead said.

CBS 46 learned that in DeKalb County, one in every 20 pictures are missing. In Cobb County, one in every 14 pictures are missing. In Gwinnett County, one in every 12 offenders is not pictured. And in Fulton County, one in every seven offenders has no picture.

"I can not answer why their pictures are not on there," Fulton County Deputy Sabrina Thornton said. "Other than they didn't come in for their initial registration."

Georgia law requires sex offenders to go to their local sheriff's office and register themselves once a year. Any failure to register is a felony. And every year, by law, the sheriff's office is required to photograph them.

"All of our photos are sent to the GBI," DeKalb County police investigator ____ Becker from DeKalb County said. "From there, they are put on the Web site. We don't have anything to do with putting them on the GBI Web site."

-There is the problem, state workers. Pictures are sent? How, by carrier pigeon? I wonder what kind of camera is used to take pictures, sounds like the kind that requires you to have the film developed.

But somewhere between the sheriff's departments and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, hundreds of photos are falling through the cracks, and no one knows what these offenders look like.

-OK, who is shooting the pigeons? Maybe they need bullet proof vest for the pigeons?

"We have a staff that work on that, but they work on other issues," Bankhead said. "But when you have 1,000 photos to enter to add a month, it's just a workload issue."

-What, 1,000 new sex offenders a month? Something is not right here.

CBS 46’s exclusive investigation found missing photos show a more significant failure in communication between the GBI and local law enforcement. We found addresses for numerous criminals with no picture posted on the GBI Web site and for some reason, local law enforcement had no idea these offenders are living in their communities.

-Yup, I knew it, the police don't know what addresses are in the neighborhood they patrol. How about giving them a list of addresses in the area they patrol?

CBS 46 News uncovered the loophole in the system by doing a simple search of the GBI Web site. But local law enforcement agencies are not doing that same match to identify missing information and untracked offenders registered in their counties. CBS 46’s investigation discovered that 800 offenders across the state listed by the GBI never had their addresses verified.

When we asked Thornton about those untracked offenders, she responded, "We are in the process of find out why (they are) not in our system."

Our investigation got immediate action. Fulton County delivered 128 photos to the GBI Wednesday morning. Officials in Gwinnett and Dekalb counties tell us they have also sent all of their photos to the GBI and they are reviewing the list of untracked offenders in their communities.

The GBI has also added two additional staff members, for a total of three people, to deal with the backlog of missing pictures as a result of our report.

-OK, the pigeons have landed, hopefully they haven't pooed on the pics. Now where is that manual on how to use this computer?

Officials in Cobb and Clayton Counties refused our repeated requests for an interview. ..News Source.. by Wendy Saltzman