Though state law gives residents the right to know whether registered sex offenders reside in their neighborhoods, the location of 605 of them within Hawai‘i remains unverified, leaving them out of reach of law enforcement. As many as 31 registered,
Though state law gives residents the right to know whether registered sex offenders reside in their neighborhoods, the location of 605 of them within Hawai‘i remains unverified, leaving them out of reach of law enforcement.
As many as 31 registered, non-verified sex offenders are listed in Lihu‘e and 22 in Kapa‘a; however, whether their listed addresses are still current poses a problem for police, until a neighbor or employer who recognizes the offender makes a complaint.
Such offenders are flagged in the state’s database as “unverified,” which means they have been convicted of a sexually offensive crime, but, according to the state, they have failed to update their personal information, including current address.
“The fact is this is a small community and the parents of young children may not know where there are sex offenders because they’re not registered,” Prosecuting Attorney Craig De Costa said.
In addition to those who have committed crimes against minors, residents also have a right to know whether they are employing or neighboring a sexual predator who has targeted adults, he said.
But according to the Hawai‘i Criminal Justice Data Center, hundreds of registered sex offenders remain “unverified,” even though they were at one time convicted of varying degrees of sexual crimes.
While the intent of the law is to keep tabs on sex offenders, as often such criminals require monitoring to prevent a relapse in behavior, the entity tasked with enforcing that law varies, Deputy Attorney General Christopher Young said.
“Statewide, we’ve asked counties to assist us in these cases,” Young said. “Our office does have a unit that got funded specifically to dedicate resources to go out and investigate non-compliant offenders. Unfortunately, we only have two full-time investigators and one part-time investigator on the Big Island.
“It’s not a big unit, but we do the best we can as far as those who are non-compliant based on the seriousness of the crime.”
Factors used to gauge the egregiousness of the assault include whether the victim was underage, whether there was violence involved and the defendant’s criminal history, he said.
Young also said counties such as Maui are doing “sweeps” to crackdown on unverified, registered sex offenders, but he added that it’s up to each individual county to determine whether to take action.
“We can’t mandate departments to act, he said.
The law was designed to help keep tabs on sex offenders but wasn’t intended to backlog the system.
For that reason, DeCosta said he hopes community members who are aware non-compliant sex offenders will help keep a watchful eye.
“The law is to get people to register not to create new crimes to prosecute,” he said. “However, if we can get everybody registered, that would be the ideal.”
Deputy Police Chief Gordon Isoda said the Kaua‘i Police Department doesn’t have a position specifically designated to monitoring the Hawai‘i Criminal Justice Data Center Web site, which lists information on the county’s sex offenders and the sex offenders against minors, but he said police do follow up on complaints made by residents who have identified an offender who is out of compliance.
Assistant Chief Roy Asher said sex offenders who have failed to update their information out of negligence rather than derision should do so promptly at the Kaua‘i Police Department.
Any resident who spots a registered sex offender who has outdated information should file a complaint with the KPD, he added.
“We have an obligation if somebody makes a complaint of someone not being registered to check on it. We can only hope that they’re valid complaints,” Asher said.
County Councilwoman and former Prosecuting Attorney Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho said in her professional experience she has always been adamant that the county brings charges against non-compliant sex offenders.
“Sex offenders are held to those standards of monitoring because they need to get treated and into a program,” she said. “ … I think there has to be very specific attention being paid to these kinds of offenses.”
