OK- Sex offenders leave city for country

2-22-2009 Oklahoma:

State restrictions on where they can live leaves them with fewer choices. Others just don't register.

Some registered sex offenders who once lived in Tulsa are moving to neighboring rural counties while others appear to be moving underground, a Tulsa World analysis of Department of Corrections data indicates.

Since 2005, just before the state imposed tough residency restrictions, the number of registered sex offenders in Tulsa has decreased from a high of nearly 600 to about 350.

Conversely, business is booming at the sex-offender registration units in the sheriff's offices of neighboring counties.

Of the 443 sex offenders who are registered in Rogers, Creek, Wagoner and Osage counties, 60 lived in Tulsa County in 2005, records indicate.

Osage County Sheriff Ty Koch said, "What we're finding is people are moving out of the cities because they are having a hard time finding a place to live under the statutes."

The number of sex offenders who live in Osage County has increased 190 percent since 2005, when only 40 were registered.

"I just registered 10 this last week," said Jeanie Brown, a warrants specialist for the Osage County Sheriff's Department.

Osage County now has 116 sex offenders registered "and more coming in every day," Brown said.

Why Osage County?

Brown's answers: "Because it is a rural area. Because they can move into a place where there is no school or any kind of restriction. Its proximity to Tulsa."

The migration of registered sex offenders follows a series of state laws that have made it harder for them to live in metro areas.

The laws prevent sex offenders from residing within 2,000 feet of schools, parks or day-care centers.

Koch said the influx is taxing his staff. "The more we get here, the more manpower it takes to track them," he said.

Some offenders are trying to skirt the law, he said, adding, "Many are giving invalid addresses."

Koch's office visits sex offenders' homes at least once a year to ensure that they are living where they say they are.

One registered sex offender, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said he moved from a Tulsa apartment to a relative's house in rural Osage County after the stricter residency laws took effect.

He said he likes his current home.

"I like looking out in the morning and seeing all the deer," he said.

The offender's home is 3.5 miles from the closest school. And although he regularly reports to the Sheriff's Office, he has never had a deputy visit his home, he said.

"I see them drive by every now and then," the offender said.

He still commutes to Tulsa, driving almost 40 miles to work there, he said.

Although he doesn't plan to move, he said, it would be difficult for him to return to Tulsa because of the residency restrictions.

He warned against adding more "safe zones" to the residency restrictions.

"I think if they keep making more restrictions, then people are not going to register," the offender said.

"I think if they change it a little bit, more people would register. It's better to know where people's at than not."

Although the number of sex offenders has dropped in Tulsa and Oklahoma counties, law enforcement officials warn that many are just going underground.

Since 2005, the number of registered sex offenders in Tulsa County has decreased 39 percent, from 800 to 491 registrants.

Tulsa Police Sgt. John Adams attributes much of the decrease to the stricter residency restrictions.

About 85 percent of the city is now off-limits to sex offenders because of the many so-called "safe zones," Adams said.

Most of the 352 offenders who legally live in Tulsa are allowed to stay in their homes because they were there before the new restrictions were passed, he said.

Still, although the number of registered sex offenders who live in Tulsa has decreased, Adams' unit has seen a large increase in residency violations.

"They are still living here," Adams said.

More often now, they are living in Tulsa illegally.

Adams said his unit is currently working 77 cases involving violations of sex offender registration law.

Before the tougher restrictions were imposed, the unit usually received five or six cases a month, Adams said. About two-thirds of the cases involve offenders who either have failed to register or who have given bogus addresses, he said.

Offenders who move to rural areas are subject to less oversight than those in urban areas.

Offenders in Osage County may face a visit from a deputy once a year. In contrast, Tulsa police make visits four times a year, Adams said.

Department of Corrections data point to many metropolitan area offenders moving underground.

Of the nearly 900 sex offenders whose whereabouts are unknown, 157 committed their crimes in Tulsa County and 144 were convicted in Oklahoma County.


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New park in Sapulpa clears out offenders
It’s been a year since the city of Sapulpa notified dozens of registered sex offenders who were living in a cluster of motels near the Turner Turnpike entrance that they had to move out.

The city had just built a small park within 2,000 feet of some of the motels, and that meant the city could force the o?enders to move.

State Department of Corrections data from April 2007 indicate that about 100 offenders reported living at one of several low-rate motels in the area.

Today, of the 27 sex offenders who are registered within Sapulpa’s city limits, just two list addresses at one of the motels.

The exodus of sex offenders has reduced the workload for Sapulpa police, which handles sex offender registrants in that area, Sapulpa Police Capt. Nate Norton said.

“That’s cut our work down,” he said.

The department assigned officers to check on the offenders regularly to ensure that they were still living at the motels.

Still, the department sees offenders attempting to move into the motels.

This month, two offenders who were registering with police said they lived in one of the motels, unaware that it was within 2,000 feet of a park.

“I had to basically tell both of them: ‘Hey, you are living inside a safety zone, and consider yourself evicted. You need to move,’ ” Norton said.

Although the administrative workload has decreased, Norton said, he couldn’t connect the offenders’ absence to a change in the crime rate in the area.

“The actual offenders were not listed as suspects in a lot of crimes we had,” he said.

“There may have been a witness or two or maybe even a victim, but very few of them were actually responsible for a crime, that we were able to tell.”

Of the 100 former residents, about 75 percent have reregistered at other addresses.

The rest are now considered by the Corrections Department as delinquent in maintaining their registration requirements, which means that their whereabouts are unknown to the state.

Of those who did list a new address, 20 are in Tulsa County.

Ten offenders listed addresses in Creek County — in some cases, Sapulpa.

The remaining offenders have scattered across the state to areas including Okmulgee, Osage andWagoner counties. ..News Source.. by By CURTIS KILLMAN World Staff Writer