Each weekday, there are almost 600 registered sex offenders in Chatham County.
As of July, 454 of these men and women were permanent residents of the county. Another 110 come here to work.
SLIDESHOW: View photos and information on Savannah's registered sex offenders: Part 1 and Part 2.
Also, view photos and information on registered sex offenders in West Chatham
Investigators with the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office Sex Offender Registration & Tracking Unit — as well as local police departments — do their best to know them all.
“Unless it’s designated by a court or otherwise, it’s a lifetime registry, and they’ll come in and fill out the appropriate paperwork: address, whether they’re employed or going to school,” said SORT investigator Octavius Anderson.
“We go out and verify this information several times a year and make sure that each offender stays in compliance. And when they’re not in compliance, we’re able to deal with them accordingly.”
In Chatham County, SORT investigators check on the registered offenders three to four times a year to verify addresses, though they’re only required to do so once annually.
“The reason for doing that is ... we had two investigators doing it and they’d go out there and tell you eight of 10 of the addresses were basically bad addresses,” said Sgt. Mark Eichenlaub, who supervises SORT.
“So once we started these (more frequent) residence checks, now we find that basically eight out of 10 are good addresses. ... it’s made a dramatic improvement of keeping up with them and making sure they’re where they’re supposed to be.”
Some of the offenses that can land a person on the sex offender registry are what one might expect: molestation, enticing a minor for indecent purposes or sexual battery. But some non-sexual crimes, SORT investigators said, can also result in a person being added to the list, including kidnapping and false imprisonment in some cases, or aggravated assault if rape was a motive.
Every person who is required by law to register as a sex offender in Georgia is assigned a level — between I and III — by the Sexual Offender Registration Review Board based on the likelihood
the person will commit a future sexual crime.
The board — composed of 15 individuals who are appointed by the governor — thoroughly examines each offender's history to determine that risk, said Tracy Alvord, the board’s executive director.
Along with convictions, the board assesses the seriousness of the offense, both the offender’s and victim’s characteristics and the relationship of the offender to the victim. It also considers the number of victims and violations and the degree of violence used during the crime.
“There are so many factors that the board looks at to determine what level a sex offender falls under,” Alvord said. “The more information we’ve got the more accurately we can identify predators.”
Sexually dangerous predators, or those labeled by the board as Level III sex offenders, are people determined to have the greatest risk of committing future dangerous sex crimes, according to the group’s guidelines. Level III offenders must wear a GPS tracking monitor on their ankles at all times, Alvord said.
A Level II offender has an intermediate risk of recidivism, and a Level I offender has very little risk of committing future sexual offenses.
“Obviously, Level II and III offenders need more monitoring,” Alvord said. “We’re working on educating law enforcement agencies to differentiate between the low risk Level I offenders and someone who is a predator.”
Staying aware
Restrictions on where people on the registry live and who they’re around vary on a case-by-case basis, investigators said.
“All offenders aren’t on the same restrictions,” Anderson said. “Because any one of them convicted before 2003 (when new laws went into effect) don’t have any resident restrictions or employment restriction; so they can pretty much live and work where they want.”
Parole and probation also come into play with restrictions.
“Most sex offenders, as long as they’re on probation or parole, they basically can’t be around kids,” Anderson said. “Some can’t be around kids, some can’t be around either males or females; they’re not all the same.
“... But these are conditions of probation or parole. Once they’ve completed probation or parole, they’re actually able to be around kids."
Sgt. Eichenlaub, the SORT supervisor, said the unit frequently gets phone calls from people wondering how registered sex offenders are able to live nearby or be around children. The deputies look into each call, he said, but there’s nothing they can do if the registered person is in compliance with the law.
“There’s nothing to stop them being around,” Anderson said.
He added later: “The parents are the front line of defense.”
Level III offenders are required to come to the sheriff's office twice annually — on their birthdays and six months later.
There are currently no absconders — offenders who have not signed up for the registry as required — listed for Chatham County. Eichenlaub said it’s known that the sheriff's office will extradite and charge absconders.
People on the registry have 72 hours to notify the sheriff's office if they move. If they don't, they can be charged with a felony and receive from one to 30 years behind bars, investigators said.
“When we find a bogus address, we address it,” said SORT deputy Christopher Blount. “We start an investigation then actually go to that address and see whether anybody is living there, talk to the neighbors, see if they’ve seen (the registered sex offender) there at that address. ... We just keep going from there and working of course with the DA’s office, letting them know what we have going.”
Homeless sex offenders
The same diligence is given to sex offenders on the registry who claim to be homeless.
“Well, if you want to register as homeless, you come in and it’s the same process as someone with an address,” Anderson said. “You tell us where you’re living, you fill out the paperwork, and we also have them draw us a map as to where they’re staying.
“And if they’re telling us they’re living at McDonald’s on the bench at the right-hand corner, that better be where they’re living because we go out and verify.”
Savannah Homeless Authority board chairman Larry Lee said the organization does not specifically track sex offenders as part of its monitoring of the homeless. About a dozen people are listed as homeless on the county’s sex offender registry, and others list the addresses of homeless shelters as where they live.
Fourteen people on the county’s sex offender registry list their residence as 124 Arnold St., the address of Inner City Night Shelter. Two others on the list claim to be homeless and living across from the shelter.
“We are one of the few shelters that the state prisons know we will take sex offenders,” said Inner City’s executive director, Wesley Crenshaw. “We get calls from all the surrounding prisons and counties. We even have a couple people who are monitored.”
Crenshaw said the shelter has regular visits from law enforcement officers working with the registry, and the staffs make it known to its other residents that sex offenders may live there.
“The reason people stay here is we call ourselves a safe haven,” he said. “As long as they’re not drunk and unruly or sick, we let them stay. Anyone who’s been in jail, anyone who can’t find a place to stay — if we’ve got a bed for them ... and they just want a place to sleep and eat, that’s what we’re for, and we carry that same attitude for sex offenders.”
Two of the people on the registry living at Inner City are classified as Level III — both were convicted of child molestation in Georgia.
“The people who are on that registry, some of them deserve to be there and some of them do not deserve to be there,” Crenshaw said. “Sex between a 16- and 17-year-old is nothing to have your name on the registry for years. ... People won’t understand that until they have a son or daughter in that situation.”
Crenshaw said he feels the laws governing who gets listed in the sex offender registry ought to be revisited.
“After all, let’s face it — do we have a listing for DUIs? We don’t have those people listed ...,” he said. “We don’t have bankers who have stolen millions of dollars — we don’t have a registry for those people, do we?”
Keeping an eye out
Just as Crenshaw doesn’t broadcast the identities of people on the sex offender registry to others staying at the shelter, sheriff’s deputies don’t personally notify neighbors when a person on the registry moves in next door.
“The law doesn’t mandate for us to do that or for them to do that,” Eichenlaub said. “... There’s a place on our website that you can sign up to receive email notifications. If a sex offender moves into your zip code, you can get an email sent out to your address and it tells you a sex offender moved to your ZIP code.”
Blount said SORT doesn’t just rely on the Web to distribute that information to public locations, either.
“We also issued out hundreds of books,” he said. “We send them to City Hall, libraries, all the police precincts, every school in Chatham County. We email updates weekly of the new additions and changes in address to the sex offender list also.”
While the list is distributed through those books to municipal police throughout the county, keeping track of the people on the registry is still the responsibility of the sheriff’s office.
Some of the county’s municipal police departments regularly keep their eyes on offenders while others rely almost entirely on SORT deputies.
The Savannah-Chatham police department’s special victims unit and all five precincts keep up-to-date information about sex offenders who are living within their jurisdictions, said Julian Miller, metro spokesman. However, metro officers do not track those offenders unless an issue arises.
“If an officer receives a complaint (about an offender), they will respond to the complaint and then ask the SORT deputies for assistance,” Miller said. “SORT has the specifics of each offender and they know what the conditions of their probation are.”
Pooler and Garden City are a bit more vigilant.
“We rely on the sheriff’s department to make sure (sex offenders) meet the criteria of the law,” said Garden City Police Chief David Lyons. “But we do monitor. We do everything we can to keep up with who is in our city.”
Lyons’ officers do not warn neighbors that a sex offender is living near them, nor do they regularly contact the sex offenders — currently 17 registered at Garden City addresses, according to the sheriff’s office registry — living there.
“But do we drive by on occasion? Yes, we do.” Lyons said. “I have a community police officer that will keep an eye on them.”
Pooler police chief Mark Revenew said his officers are well aware of the identities of his city’s 17 individuals on the list.
“We are very cognizant of the offenders in our area,” Revenew said. “Many of them have been a result of either our diligent investigations or as result of joint investigations with other agencies.”
His department works closely with SORT when problems arise.
“We have found (SORT investigators) very responsive and quick to investigate any violations,” Revenew said.
For smaller municipalities it’s easier to keep an eye out.
“We are aware of them and we know where they live, but other than that it’s up to the sheriff’s office to monitor them,” said Thunderbolt Police Chief Irene Pennington. “Any time they have changes (the SORT investigators) bring that to us, and we work in conjunction with them.”
The town Pennington polices has only one resident listed in the registry — convicted in 2007 of possession of child pornography.
There are two registered sex offenders living on Tybee Island. Police Chief Robert Bryson knows the island’s offenders — designated Level II and both convicted of child molestation — by name. He said the department gets weekly emails from Blount at the sheriff’s office, and he said he’s told officers to introduce themselves to the offenders.
In fact, Bryson said he keeps their pictures in the department’s squad room.
Bryson said in the 12 years he’s been on the force in Tybee he’s seen registered sex offenders come and go.
“We work with (the sheriff’s office),” Bryson said. “We don’t have a lot, but the ones we do, we try to stay on top of.”
Being a vacation hot spot, however, means registered sex offenders from across the country sometimes find their way to the island.
“We do get people, they show up and they’re offenders from all over the United States that show up, and they bring their paperwork that they get from their probation or parole officer saying they’re a sex offender,” Bryson said. “Really over the past 10 years, we’ve had people checking in and out for a while.
“We just notify the officers that they’re here and keep an eye on them, and let their probation officers know they’re checked in ... and ask them if there’s anything we should be concerned about.”
Protecting Chatham’s children
Since Alvord, who became the review board’s executive director in September 2010, began working in the sexual offender field 20 years ago Georgia has come a long way in properly identifying those who are likely to commit heinous sexual acts, she said.
“Georgia has done a great job at becoming more educated in understanding and labeling sex offenders,” she said. “It has grown tremendously, but it’s still a work in progress.”
Ultimately, the board’s purpose and mission is to protect Georgia’s communities and, especially, its children, Alvord said.
Parents, she said, should understand that for the vast majority of offenders, no matter what level they’re classified, they’re on the list for a reason.
“I implore people not to leave their children alone with a convicted sex offender no matter what,” Alvord said.
Even that may not be enough, said Kris Rice, executive director of the Coastal Children’s Advocacy Center in Savannah.
“The registry is a small tool,” Rice said. “Unfortunately, a very small percentage of the people who commit these crimes are on the registry.”
In Chatham County, Rice said, those who get caught typically get convicted and are put on the list, and that can lead parents to believe anyone not on the list is safe.
“Parents need to understand who their kids are around,” she said. “We think we know child molesters when we see them, but more often than not it’s someone we’re close to — someone we know and think, ‘They’d never do that, they’re good people; they go to church and they keep their lawn mowed.’”
Blount said SORT deputies preach much the same message.
“I think we went to probably 10 to 15 schools last school term and talked to the students about registered sex offenders ... and we asked them what do they think a sex offender looks like,” he said. "And they would think some scraggly guy or whatever. Actually, on the other hand, it could be your neighbor, your coach, your uncle, your father — you know, somebody that you see every day. So just to get (the school children) out of their mind frame that it could just be this guy that looks weird — that’s not the case.”
To protect their children, Rice said, parents need to develop strong, trusting relationships with their children.
“It needs to be where if your kids have anything that they feel uncomfortable about they’ll come to you,” she said.
“And, as parents, we have to listen and believe our children when they tell us something is wrong.”