Iowa sex offenders provide accurate info to law enforcement, study finds

5-11-2010 Iowa:

Iowa is first-in-the-nation for STAR program

Federal authorities who double-checked addresses of Iowans required to register as sex offenders discovered that only a small percentage provided erroneous information to authorities.

U.S. Marshals teamed with local law enforcement to conduct the Sex offender Tracking And Registration (STAR) project in the 52 counties that comprise the Northern District of Iowa. The teams checked all registered sex offenders in the district, a total of 1,745 individuals, and discovered that only 155 — or roughly 8 percent — had provided false addresses. Charges have been made against 63 of those found to be in non-compliance, and there might be more charges made in the future.


The project comes on the heels of national criticism that the sex offender registry isn’t working as well as it could because offenders are lying about their addresses and/or switching addresses without notifying authorities. Law enforcement officials for municipalities and counties have also argued that they have been provided mandates to check on registered sex offenders, but have not been provided the funding necessary to complete the task. Those same officials have also gone on record, at least in Iowa and a few other states, to explain that strict residency restrictions can sometimes be counter-productive to keeping track of known offenders due to limited housing opportunities.

Yet, despite the arguments and estimates that perhaps 25 percent or more sex offenders have wrong addresses on file, authorities conducting the home checks found most individuals provided correct information. Tim Junker, U.S. Marshal for the Northern District, said at a press conference Monday, however, that there is no way of knowing if the Iowa figures will translate to other federal districts. ..Source.. Lynda Waddington