Rising Number of Sex Offenders Not Registering
MALVEAUX: Here's a rundown of what we're working on next. We'll take you on a bus with U.S. Marshals tracking down sex offenders. CNN has rare access. Then invasion of the pythons. That's right. They've got a stranglehold on the Florida Everglades. And later, giant parade for New York's Super Bowl heroes. Check it out. Registered sex offender could be living right next door to you without you even knowing it. A new report shows that the number of registered sex offenders is now going up. And a lot of them are not complying with the rules that they have to comply with once released from jail. Sandra Endo, she went along with a team of U.S. Marshals to find out what is being done to make sure that these sex offenders are following the law. Sandra, let's start off with the basic question here, how big a problem is this?</s>SANDRA ENDO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, according to this new report by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, over the past five years, the number of registered sex offenders went up 23 percent. Now out of the nearly quarter of a million registered sex offenders out there, actually there's three-fourths of a million according to this new report, 100,000 of them are in noncompliance with the registry. That means they give false addresses. They're not at the addresses they should be according to the registry. They flee the state. And that is why U.S. Marshals team up with local law enforcement to try to find these people who are in hiding. Now we got an exclusive inside look at a recent bust with marshals in Baltimore. We went to address after address, about seven locations, no luck. Not finding these registered sex offenders who were supposed to be there. Now finally after knocking on a lot of doors, there's a lot of investigative work that needs to be done, finally marshals got a lead on one alleged fugitive. They found him. They arrested him. They told us that this registered sex offender was convicted of statutory rape a few years ago. He has not been complying with the law, and he actually admitted that to us when we talked to him later after the bust. Have a listen.</s>ENDO: You have to notify officials where you move too. And you weren't doing that, right?</s>ROBERT STANKIEWICZ, REGISTERED SEX OFFENDER: No. I didn't do that.</s>ENDO: Did you think you could snide what were you thinking?</s>STANKIEWICZ: No, I didn't think I could hide. I was trying to stall until I got money together. That was -- I wasn't trying to hide from the law or nothing. I was going turn myself in and everything --</s>ENDO: Why didn't you just register and comply with the law, let them know where you are?</s>STANKIEWICZ: Because the last time I missed my appointment, they locked me up down there.</s>MALVEAUX: He told CNN also that it's very hard to comply with the registry and that it's like wearing this -- a scarlet letter. And he'll have to do that for at least 25 years.</s>MALVEAUX: Is there anything about this particular group that makes them able not to comply with these registries? How do they do that?</s>ENDO: Yes, it's something because law enforcement officials we spoke to, the U.S. Marshals say that this group of registered sex offenders are really unique because they are transient in nature. They can range from a very affluent person, who you may never suspect committed a crime like it, to somebody who's homeless. And that's what makes these numbers very hard to really nail down and have concrete numbers as to who's complying and who's not. Really, it's a cat-and-mouse game of chase. Trying to find these registered sex offenders to make sure they're in compliance.</s>MALVEAUX: What should people do to protect themselves and their families?</s>ENDO: Really, you should be armed with information. All these registered sex offenders are listed on state data bases. Every state has a registry so you can look up on line where they're living. And there's a picture and name associated with their offense, as well. So even if they aren't at the address on the registry, you can be armed with information to know who to look out for because that name and picture are on the registry and on the Internet.</s>MALVEAUX: All right. Sandra, thank you very much. And you can actually go inside that raid with Sandra and the U.S. Marshals. That's at 1:00 eastern in the newsroom. The slaughter in Syria intensifies.</s>MALVEAUX: No one is spared as rocket fire and gunshots rain down. We've got a live report on what's next.