The Carroll County Sheriff’s Office said the number of registered sex offenders living or working in the county is the highest since the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s Sex Offender Registry list was started in 1996.

Sheriff’s Investigator Lee Kahlenbeck said more than 240 sex offenders are registered in the county, which is four times more than the approximately 60 offenders registered in neighboring Haralson County.

State law requires that anyone convicted of a sexually based crime - such as child molestation, rape, sodomy and sexual exploitation of a child - to register within 72 hours of their release from prison to the county or counties in which they will live, work or attend school.

Of those 240 in Carroll County, Kahlenbeck said only five were women. He said convictions for child molestation were among the majority of reasons why many of those stepping foot into his office were required to register. The list is also sent to the GBI’s database.

“When I first started in this position to register and monitor sex offenders we had 51 people on the registry,” he said. “That number has only continued to climb.”

One of the reasons many convicted sex offenders have chosen to live and work in the county, Kahlenbeck said, was to comply with the law prohibiting sex offenders to live or work within 1,000 feet of a school, day care, church or library.

“When that went into effect a couple of years ago we saw an increase of people move here,” he said. “The county is more rural, and it is easier for them to find places to live and work that are in compliance. It is more difficult to find a place that is not near one of those places in metro-Atlanta.”

Kahlenbeck said about half of all those on the sex offender registry have moved into the county from other places.

The Sheriff’s Office will receive a notice when someone is released from prison and plans to move to the county, and then that person must register when they arrive. Offenders also must notify the Sheriff’s Office if they change their residence or place of employment, and again 72 hours prior to their birthdays.

Although the list for registered sex offenders might be lengthy compared to Douglas and Haralson counties, Kahlenbeck said no one on the list is classified as a sexual predator, which is someone who has committed another sexual offense since their release from prison.

Kahlenbeck said he routinely fields phone calls from residents asking if a sex offender is living nearby. To help address these concerns, the Sheriff’s Office implemented an online sex offender watch program to display every registered sex offender living within a two-mile radius of any address in the county.

A photograph and information about their conviction is also available on the Web site. An e-mail alert that can be requested through the Web site can notify a resident within one day of a convicted sex offender moving within one mile of their home.

In February, Kahlenbeck said 10 more convicted sex offenders registered in the county.

“People want to know this information,” he said. “I still receive about five calls a week from residents. People want to know who is living near them. This is one more tool that people can use. I have calls from concerned parents who are concerned about their child’s safety or from adults concerned about an elderly parent.”

The sex offender registry, according to Kahlenbeck, also aids law enforcement.

“In terms of an investigative tool, we can use it to search for people if we have a rape or child molestation occur,” he said. “It doesn’t mean that anyone on the list did it, but it is a starting point in an investigation.”

In some crimes, such as rape, the victim might not immediately come forward to authorities and report the crime. Kahlenbeck said the sex offender registry allows investigators to research back to the time the crime occurred.

For anyone convicted of a sex crime who fails to register annually, the sentence for the first violation is a minimum of 10 years in prison and the second violation carries a minimum of 30 years to serve in prison.

Kahlenbeck said deputies conduct random checks on those on the registry throughout the year and verify any changes of residence or employment.

“If we did not monitor the people on the sex offender registry and they did not realize they were being monitored, then they could be more apt to commit another offense,” he said.

For more information or to register to receive e-mail notifications on sex offenders moving into the county, go online to www.carrollsheriff.com.