Sheriff's Sgt. Mike Anderson steers his cruiser
through a poor North Charleston neighborhood on a hot, sticky morning, a thick
stack of printouts, files and maps piled on his dashboard.
He is responsible for making sure sex offenders in Charleston County register
with the sheriff's office, and that they actually live at the addresses they
provide. There are more than 700 offenders and just one of him.
"This is one of the most difficult jobs I've ever had," Anderson says. "If
you don't have organizational skills, you will drown."
State law requires sex offenders to register in the counties where they live,
but not all comply. In Charleston County, which has the largest concentration of
sex offenders in the state, the sheriff's office has about 50 active arrest
warrants at any given time for rapists, pedophiles and other offenders who have
failed to register or moved without notification.
"They're all over," Anderson says of sex offenders as he steers his car
around clumps of freshly mowed grass baked brown in the summer sun. "And for
every one that is registered, how many are out there that we just don't know
about?"
Each month, the sheriff's office must verify the addresses of some 50
registered offenders picked in random audits by the State Law Enforcement
Division. Deputies generally check on at least another dozen or so monthly after
receiving tips or mail returned unopened from an offender's stated address.
Anderson doesn't go out of his way to alert neighbors to an offender's
presence. The law doesn't require him to do so. But Anderson also won't hide
facts if someone asks.
The sheriff's office hopes to add a second detective by January to register
and track sex offenders. By contrast, one Florida police agency has six
detectives assigned to a registry unit in a community where 430 sex offenders
live, said Detective Denice Catlett, who ran the Charleston County unit for
three years and is taking over the helm again.
Anderson pulls his cruiser to the curb on Ferrara Drive outside a weathered
blue home with white Christmas lights still hanging from the eaves. A man
convicted of sexual assault is said to live here.
Anderson knocks repeatedly on the door but gets no answer. He rustles through
his paperwork and grabs his cell phone, punching in the number of a moving
company where the offender works.
"He's not in any trouble," Anderson says to the man's boss. "We just need to
talk with him."
A short time later, Anderson's phone chirps. The offender is on the line
swearing he still lives in the home. Anderson thanks him for the call and makes
a notation on his list. On to the next.
On Dorsey Avenue, Anderson parks in front of a cinderblock home set back from
the road, with a black muscle car in the driveway, along with two children's
bicycles, a miniature basketball hoop and a scooter.
Anderson eyes the bicycles and shakes his head. The man he is looking for was
convicted of raping a child under the age of 11.
The deputy finds the man's apartment in the rear of the property, where a
child's inflatable pool sits just a few feet from his door.
The man is not home, but a neighbor is. Tiffany Howell tells Anderson that
the man had been kicked out of the unit earlier in the year after an argument
with his girlfriend. He has since returned, and everyone is aware of his past.
There are several kids living on the property, including Howell's 4-year-old
son.
"He doesn't bother me," she says of the offender. "He stays to himself. I
don't feel threatened by him. But I wouldn't want my kid back there."
Howell lived near a sex offender in her old neighborhood as well. He was
wheelchair-bound and seemed a decent, nice man. She wouldn't leave her son alone
with the man, but he would bring movies by for her son to watch.
"I think you can trust them to a point, but you wouldn't want to leave your
kids with them," she says.
A short time later, Anderson is on Spruce Street looking for a man convicted
of rape and peeping offenses. He finds two yapping dogs outside the squat,
cinderblock home but no sign of the suspect. A neighbor tells him the man hasn't
been seen around there in some time.
Anderson frowns. Another offender is in the wind.
