NORTH PORT, Fla. (WFLA) – Parents in North Port were shocked after learning a 71-year old registered sexual offender was living just across the street from their children’s bus stop.
Parents were able to find out where sex offenders lived in relation to their own neighborhoods using the Florida Department of Law Enforcement registry website.
You can check your neighborhood at this link, using the tutorial in the video above.
A Dec. 2018 report from the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability shows that nearly 29,000 registered sex offenders and predators are now living in Florida, which is a 53 percent increase since 2005 when Florida’s legislators first ordered a review the state’s tracking efforts of sex offenders.
Florida’s registry audit – which breaks down the main demographic of registered sex offenders in the state as white, middle-aged men – notes that 60 percent of the more than 73,000 sexual offenders and predators on Florida’s registry live in other states or have returned to incarceration.
More than 28,000 of the sex offenders on Florida’s registry live in Florida communities.
The report includes a county-by-county breakdown showing that urban counties had the highest overall number of sex offenders, while smaller, more rural counties had a higher concentration of sex offenders per capita.
Total number of sex offenders and predators per county
Hover over the bars to see the numbers.
Source: Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability
Orange County, which is home to Orlando, had the highest total with 2,299 followed by Duval County in northeast Florida with 2,018 registered offenders.
However, in Tampa Bay, Hillsborough County had the highest amount of sexual offenders and sexual predators with a combined total of 1,823. Pinellas County had the second-highest amount followed by Polk County.
