Sexual Predators

Friday, several organizations met in Fort Smith to discuss how to deal with sexual predators in our area. There are more than seven thousand registered sex offenders in the state of Arkansas, but officials say, they’re not the big problem. Sheri Flynn, from the Arkansas Department of Correction, explains, "The people you know about, the people you get notification about, you dont need to be nearly as worried about that as the people who have not been caught yet." Once they’re caught, sexual predators get rated, and citizens only receive notifications about the severe ones. Chief Deputy Ron Brown says, “Even our registry laws are, to me, a little vague because you cant give the exact address. You can only give the one hundred block. Level one and level two, theres certain criteria you have to meet." Before the Meghan Laws were established, many sexual predators weren’t forced to register, and studies show these predators almost always offend several times. They won’t be registered until they get caught again. Brown explains, "A sexual predator, he violates some child up to one hundred to one hundred and fifty times before hes ever even arrested on his first account." The new Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act mandates that level three sex offenders update their whereabouts every three months, and failure to update that information is a felony. A Crawford County and Fort Smith task force has made the most arrests in the nation under the new act.