Sheriff’s office: Nearly 100 sex offenders in Horry County listed as ‘non-compliant’

HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WMBF) - “Failed to register” or “unknown location,” are two categories that nearly 100 sex offenders in Horry County fall under which the sheriff’s office said makes them non-compliant.

There are currently 767 total registered sex offenders in Horry County.

The sheriff’s office keeps track of this number and puts sex offenders in three separate categories: active, non-compliant and incarcerated.

While the Horry County Sheriff’s Office said the numbers change daily, 616 are active, meaning the sheriff’s office knows where these sex offenders live and is actively monitoring them.

“The state requires that we go out and check to verify that they live where they say that they live,” said Capt. Sherri Smith with the Horry County Sheriff’s Office.

Smith explained that while the state requires a once-a-year check on sex offenders, the Horry County Sheriff’s Office goes beyond that and verifies addresses at least twice a year.

According to Horry County’s sex offender registry, there are currently 95 listed as non-compliant, and that’s over the course of nearly 30 years, since the creation of the registry in 1994.

Smith explained that being listed as non-compliant doesn’t necessarily mean that the sheriff’s office doesn’t know where a sex offender lives.

The sheriff’s office said when a sex offender is listed as non-compliant, a warrant for failing to register as a sex offender is issued and those warrants are submitted to the National Crime Information Center database. If a sex offender is found in another state, the NCIC alerts the Horry County Sheriff’s Office as to the person’s whereabouts, but the sex offender will still be listed as non-compliant because warrants for those individuals in Horry County don’t disappear after they have moved out of state.

Smith said her team also works to track down the sex offenders who either have not registered or have warrants out for their arrest.

“We do actively try to find the ones that we don’t know where they are. We do utilize the NCIC system so they’re entered into the National Crime Information Center,” she explained. “If they are stopped someplace within the state or out of the state, it’s going to show up that they’re a registered sex offender.”

South Carolina is a lifetime registry state meaning once you are on the sex offender list you can’t get off unless you petition the state.

The sheriff’s office also encourages people to send in anonymous tips if they know where a sex offender may be.

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