TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — The Florida Department of Transportation was unaware sex offenders were living on their state property, even though the men were electronically monitored and checked on by Department of Corrections personnel.
FDOT found out about the development that sprung up several months ago in an emailed query from 8 on Your Side.
FDOT spokesperson Kristen Carson said the agency is now working with the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office and county code enforcement on moving the offenders off the land.
“Any time someone is using state right-of-way and we are made aware of it, they are asked to vacate the area,” Carson said.
A time frame for when the camp would be cleared was not released.
The offenders claim they were told to live on the FDOT land by FDC probation officers. A FDC spokesperson said the department “does not assign residence locations.”
The men said they are visited at the camp by probation officers and monitored electronically with ankle bracelets. They charge the devices with solar powered equipment and a generator they purchased.
FDC has yet to respond to questions about whether anyone notified FDOT that the offenders were living on their lot at the corner of U.S. 19 Frontage Road and Bryan Dairy Road.
The tents and structure built from branches and tarps are obscured from view at the busy intersection. Some business owners and residents who live nearby indicated they did not know sex offenders lived here.
Neither did State Rep. Lindsay Cross who serves the district where the camp is.
“There’s a lot of things in our society that we don’t want to actively address,” Cross said. “We try to push it away to the side and it sounds like this is a place where that’s happened but it’s putting the security of the people in the nearby area at great risk.”
When asked if they should have been alerted about camp, Cross offered a one-word answer.
“Absolutely,” she said.
One of the offender’s attorneys, and an advocacy group spokesperson claim if the offenders were sent there by probation officers, DOC potentially violated its own Administrative Code, since they are on probation and still under sentence.
They said the code would require basic needs like running water and electricity.
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Several of the offenders here said they have some income to pay rent but cannot find housing that will take them due to their records.
Cross said one option could be using state resources for something better than living outdoors, with the people on probation paying at least some of the costs.
“I think we need some dedicated places for people who are sex offenders,” Cross said. “A place where there was monitoring, there was some rehabilitation. Certainly being able to use some of the funds they have for a safe and healthy place to live I think is appropriate.”
