Sex offenders in Oregon: State fails to track hundreds

Oregon has some of the worst records in the country at following federal standards intended to thwart roaming sex offenders, the Oregonian reports. It has become a haven for offenders who want to escape much stricter rules in other states. The state is two years behind entering names into its electronic database of registered sex offenders. It's so out of date that local police don't rely on it. Oregon's public website lists only a fraction — 2.5 percent — of the state's more than 25,000 sex offenders. So residents can't really tell who and how many sex offenders are in their neighborhoods.

In fact, Oregon has the most registered sex offenders per capita of any state except one, national statistics show. And those are the sex offenders police know about.