TO: Whom it may concern                                                                                      

SUBJECT:  Sex Offenders and Registration Costs

Under Missouri Law, the Chief Law Enforcement Officials or Sheriffs of Missouri Counties are tasked with the duty of registering Sex Offenders in the County they serve.  RSMo 589.400 states that sex offenders must register, within three (3) days of conviction, release from incarceration, or placement upon probation, with the Chief Law Enforcement Official of the county which the Sex Offender resides.

Most Counties in Missouri have had to hire part time and full time employee’s to assist in the registration and compliance processing of Sex Offenders. These employees are tasked with the following duties: processing sex offender registration forms, Halloween compliance checks, and other verifications to insure the sex offenders registering are in compliance, verifying addresses to make sure that sex offenders do not reside within one thousand (1000) feet of schools, daycare facilities, and designated public areas, etc.

The performance of the above duties comes at a cost to the Counties that register the sex offenders in the form of additional office expenses, vehicle expenses and employee salaries. These costs have typically been paid out of the Chief Law Enforcement Officials’ (Sheriffs’) office budgets.

Effective June 1st 2014, the following Sheriffs’ Offices in the Counties of Buchanan, Andrew, Atchison, Nodaway, Holt, DeKalb, Harrison, Worth and Gentry will began charging sex offenders for initial registration and changes to their current registration as provided under RSMo 589.400. These changes will assist in the process helping the Counties and Sheriffs to free funds needed for other law enforcement purposes. 

RSMo 589.400 allows the Chief Law Enforcement Official (Sheriff) of the County to charge a fee of up to ten ($10.00) dollars for processing an initial sex offender registration.

This section the law also allows the Chief Law Enforcement Official (Sheriff) of the County to charge a processing fee of five ($5.00) dollars for each change made after the initial registration required, pursuant to RSMo 589.414.

Sincerely,

Sheriff Bryan Atkins