When a person is designated as a sexual offender or a sexual predator, they will have to register and be tracked for the rest of their lives. The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) Sexual Predator and Offender Tracking Unit (SPOT) is charged with monitoring and gathering intelligence on sexual predators and offenders throughout the county.
“The primary focus of the registry is community awareness,” said Sergeant Matt Wilkins. “The public has the right to know that offenders are in the area.” Offenders have been convicted of a sex crime, which may include charges like sexual battery or sexual activity with minors, while people are designated sexual predators based on such things as the age of the victim or a court’s decree. When a sexual predator moves into an area, SPOT issues door to door notifications within one square mile of the offender’s residence, informing citizens of the person’s charges and including a photo.
Every offender and predator in Pinellas County has to register with SPOT, providing them with such information as address, place of work, vehicle description, and information about their online accounts and screen names. Offenders must report to the SPOT office twice a year and update their information; predators report quarterly. Failure to report can result in charges or jail time.
Sergeant Wilkins emphasizes that the system isn’t punitive. “We do everything we can to put them on the right track,” he said. “We don’t set them up to fail.”
The SPOT Unit has nine detectives. Eight of them have designated zones within the county, monitoring about 220 offenders each. The ninth detective handles transients and career offenders – a court designation for those who have committed subsequent similar offenses after their initial conviction.
Tracking can be difficult when the offender or predator is a transient – a person who is currently unhoused or who may sometimes live with different people for short periods of time. With no home address for SPOT to monitor, transient people must check in every 30 days. “We have a pretty good check-in rate,” Sergeant Wilkins said. Recently, he said, they only had four transient people who didn’t show up, and when they tracked them down, one was in jail.
Some offenders and predators will claim to be homeless so they can circumvent residency requirements. Depending on their status and the jurisdiction they may not be allowed to live near schools, day care centers, playgrounds, or other places. “When they come in, we look for clues that they may not be legitimately homeless,” Sergeant Wilkins said. If SPOT detectives are suspicious, they will follow the offender to determine their residence. “We had about 50 we suspected weren’t transient. When we investigated we found that 26 did in fact have a residence. Twenty criminal charges resulted from our investigation.” Anyone harboring a sex offender or predator in a place they aren’t allowed to live can also be subject to criminal charges.
The sex offender registry is about 25 years old now and some of the offenders are getting elderly. When they don’t check in, detectives may find them in a hospital or nursing home. Most offenders will be on the registry for life, but in rare cases it is possible to petition the court to be removed depending on the nature of the original crime, the length of time on the registry, and the offender’s subsequent behavior.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement maintains a searchable database of Florida sexual offenders and predators. You can search by the offender’s name or do a neighborhood search to find any offenders or predators living in your neighborhood.