State can't find 467 (1.2%) of it's registered sex offenders

First, double check state registry records many times the state doesn't post changes or makes mistakes in posting. Then maybe its time to reviews laws so that folks can find homes to stay in rather than be forced out of by too strict state laws. Thirdly, and most important is, stop demonizing registrants as is done in this article, calling them cunning, when it is more likely they cannot afford proper housing because of laws affecting their employment, for one, and political harassment.

11-24-2013 New York:

New York State has lost track of 467 (1.2%) convicted sex offenders, including rapists and child molesters, despite a law requiring them to register annually for inclusion in the Megan's Law database.

At least 15 sex offenders whose whereabouts are listed as "unknown" by the state's Division of Criminal Justice Services, which is responsible for maintaining the Sex Offender Registry, had their last known addresses on Long Island, where a total of 1,523 offenders are registered. Statewide, authorities have obtained arrest warrants for 200 of the offenders, records show.

"We've established a law that requires society's most cunning of criminals to register on an honor system, and that's what is leading to them disappearing," said Laura Ahearn, executive director of Parents for Megan's Law and the Crime Victims Center, a Stony Brook-based nonprofit organization that advocates for sex offender victims and works to find addresses for missing offenders. "For their victims, it's terrifying to know the offender who victimized them is nowhere to be found."

Of Long Island's 15 offenders listed as "unknown," at least three last provided addresses in Nassau and 12 in Suffolk, records show. But among the hundreds of offenders who failed to register in other parts of the state, some may have made their way to Long Island or New York City, officials said.

A Newsday analysis of DCJS records shows the missing offenders make up a small percentage of the 36,410 overall sex offenders statewide. Some of those ex-convicts have been missing for a year or more, according to records. ..Continued.. by KEVIN DEUTSCH