The number of registered sex offenders in Carroll County has increased, reaching near 200 this month and three times the amount in 2005.

Carroll County sheriff’s Cpl. Lee Kahlenbeck said 196 convicted sex offenders are currently registered in the county, which exceeds any other West Georgia county including Douglas County (140 registered) and Haralson County (about 50 registered).

“A lot has to do with changes in the laws last year regarding the sex offender registry,” Kahlenbeck said. “When the laws were made more strict about where the offenders could live, they started moving here from metro-Atlanta.”

Among some of the laws enacted in 2006 that have sent many on the registry moving to more rural areas such as Carroll County include prohibiting a registered sex offender from living within 1,000 feet of a church, daycare, school, community pool or residential areas that have a public pool.

“Metro areas have more of these places than rural areas,” Kahlenbeck said. “They are moving this way, because there is nowhere to live there. Those on the registry also cannot work within a 1,000 feet of a church, daycare or school, and they are coming here to find jobs.”

Kahlenbeck, who maintains the county’s sex offender registry, said the increased number of sex offenders has more than tripled the workload at the sheriff’s office as officers periodically conduct checks to make sure that offenders have not absconded, and to verify employment.

Authorities said of the sex offenders living in the county, about 65 to 70 percent are on the registry for child molestation, and all but eight of the 196 sex offenders are men.

Convictions for sexually based crimes, including child molestation, rape, statuary rape, criminal sexual conduct toward a child, sexual battery, sodomy, sexual exploitation of a child and child video voyeurism, require offenders to register within the county they live and work.

“Sex offenders have been here for years, but it has been within the last few years that the public’s awareness has increased,” Kahlenbeck said. “The public wants to know as much as they can. I get about 15 calls a week from people wanting to know if there is a registered sex offender living near them.”

Kahlenbeck said in order to keep up with the influx of those coming into the county, the sheriff’s office is working toward implementing an Internet-based system more accessible to the public that can help outline areas that offenders are prohibited from living or working near.

“We have sex offenders living in every municipality in the county and are scattered throughout at motels to subdivisions,” he said. “As far as the registry is concerned, I only expect it will continue to grow as more people come here more populated metropolitan counties.”