Sex offenders on the border

(WPRI) - The Target 12 Investigators go undercover. Revealing why you could be in the dark about sex offenders living nearby.

The problem: sex offenders living on the border of two towns. In some cases, notification stops at the town line.

You can't check for yourself, because Rhode Island doesn't tell you exactly where a sex offender lives. So we've done the work for you.

Our Target 12 Investigation used public records, including voter registration and financial documents to obtain the addresses of many level 2 and 3 sex offenders in Rhode Island.

We can't reveal exact addresses, but we found many sex offenders living near town borders, and some law enforcement officials tell us vague guidelines make it difficult to keep you informed.

We have undercover video of a level 2 sex offender in West Warwick. He was convicted of assaulting several children. A mile up the road in neighboring Warwick, the YMCA was notified by police.

But we find a different story in Central Falls. A level 3 sex offender, found guilty of assaulting a 9-year-old, and deemed a higher risk to re-offend. Residents of Central Falls were notified, but less than a mile away over the line in Pawtucket, a YMCA daycare center was never told he exists.

So close to Central Falls that you can see the sign from the YMCA parking lot, yet the notifications stopped at the city line.

Paula Kocon runs the state's sex offender community notification unit.

 

Paula Kocon, community notification unit:

 

"Some of this is new for the state, we haven't been doing a lot of notifications over the years."

 

The problem may lie in the state guidelines themselves.  The way the rules are written now, the parole board notifies the police department only in the town the offender lives. Not where the offender works, goes to school, or in bordering towns. The guidelines leave it up to law enforcement to communicate with each other.

 

Lt. Robert Voas, Johnston police:

"I think it would have to be revamping. I know for a fact that some agencies don't do that, where some agencies are doing it now."

 

A level two offender in West Warwick lives less than 200 feet from the Warwick town line. We wanted to know how many more sex offenders listed on the state's website, live on the border.

 

We find:

-17 offenders living on the border of other towns.

-7 of them are level three, deemed highest to re-offend

-10 of them level 2, moderate risk to reoffend.

 

There could be even more. We couldn't track them all down- many are transient.

 

Johnston police lieutenant Robert Voas says each town handles notifications differently.

 

Robert Voas, Johnston police:

 

"I would like to see consistency and right now we don't have that." butt to: you don't want sex offender to feel that I can go live in one community because they are not as stringent in this community."

 

Lt. Voas is spearheading an effort to close the information gap between towns. Working with state police, he hopes that in the coming months there will be a central database for law enforcement that keeps police in the loop.

Compared to other states, Rhode Island ranks near the bottom when it comes to notifying the public about sex offenders. That's according to the non-profit notify and prevent which does an annual survey.

 

Target 12 Investigators, Tim white, Eyewitness News.