Almost 1,300 Missouri sex offenders’ locations are unknown to authorities: report

A state audit published Monday found that Missouri police don’t know the location of roughly 1,300 registered sex offenders in the state, The Associated Press reported.

The news outlet reported that state officials determined that 794 of the 1,259 individuals who are unaccounted for fall into the most serious category of offenders, including those who committed rape or first- or second-degree child molestation.

The unaccounted-for individuals make up roughly 8 percent of the nearly 16,000 total registered sex offenders in Missouri, the AP reported. The audit released Monday cited inadequate enforcement of registration requirements for the results.

{mosads}Missouri State Auditor Nicole Galloway, who conducted the review, said that because of the unaccounted-for offenders, the sex offender registration system provides a “false sense of security.”

Missouri is not alone in its problems keeping track of some sex offenders, the AP reported.

An August review found that Wisconsin did not have up-to-date information on 2,735 offenders, and a 2017 state audit showed that Mississippi had no address on file for nearly 14 percent of its 13,000 registered sex offenders.