Loophole allows sex offenders to disappear

Christine Willmsen and Justin Mayo of The Seattle Times analyzed court records, sex offender registries and check-in logs to show that hundreds of sex offenders register as homeless — making their whereabouts unknown. This results in law-enforcement officials not having any way of tracking them, and residents often being unaware of potential threats. The investigation found that in King County, the number of offenders who say they are homeless has nearly tripled in the past five years to 364. "Authorities say that out of every 10 sex offenders who report they are homeless, two or three are actually living in a neighborhood at a particular address." In King County, one-third of the high-risk sex felons say they are homeless. More than half of Seattle's 140 homeless sex offenders, as of last month, had arrest warrants for failing to sign in.