Local media neglect key local aspect of Katrina story
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram's Jay Root reports some news with disturbing implications for the city of Houston:
Lurking among the hundreds of thousands of Hurricane Katrina evacuees who fled to Texas are dozens, maybe even hundreds, of sexual predators, state authorities believe.
But weeks after the state first complained, and even after four evacuees were accused of sexual attacks and arrested, the federal government won't or can't give Texas a list of Louisiana sex offenders who came here and applied for emergency assistance, state officials say.
Now the Federal Emergency Management Agency is promising to help provide names sometime next week, but Gov. Rick Perry said FEMA's "ineptitude" and "bureaucratic bungling" make him doubt that it will happen on time. And even if the agency does come through, he can't understand, he says, why it has taken so long to get the crucial information to law enforcement, who could possibly use the information to prevent sexual attacks.
One man arrested in Richardson in October was a registered Louisiana sex offender, but police say they discovered that only after he victimized an 8-year-old girl and fellow Katrina survivor.
"I am very upset," Perry told the Star-Telegram. "We can't seem to get any appropriate solutions to some of these big issues." Perry, a Republican, also called on President Bush and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to immediately reform FEMA in the interest of public safety.
"The president right on down needs to really hammer into this agency culture that you have a job to do and that job is to assist people in times of need and to protect the citizens of this country. So far they're failing," Perry said.
FEMA has cited privacy concerns as an impediment to releasing the list of Louisiana residents known to be in Texas, a list that state officials wanted so they could check to see if any of the names match those of known sex offenders. Rebuffed, the governor's office then said it would give FEMA a list of Louisiana sex offenders so the federal agency could determine which names match aid recipients and then inform law enforcement. That list of offenders was handed to FEMA on Oct. 16, said Texas Homeland Security Director Steve McCraw.
"As of yet we don't have anything," McCraw said. "We're expecting it. We don't know what the holdup is right now."
[snip]
In the meantime, Texas on its own has identified 140 Louisiana sex offenders who fled Hurricane Katrina and are believed to be living here among more than 400,000 Katrina evacuees, McCraw said. He declined to say how the state Homeland Security agency tracked the offenders, whose names have been provided to local law enforcement agencies. But McCraw believes the actual number of Louisiana sex offenders could be in the hundreds.
"I know it's going to be more than 140," he said.
Searches of the Houston Chronicle archives and Google news reveal precious little reporting from the Chronicle (or other local media) on this issue with serious implications for our community. A November 1 (webstamp) story by Clay Robison and Samantha Levine focused on criticism of FEMA, mentioning the sexual offender issue in passing:
The governor also wrote that "FEMA's failure to swiftly assist Texas in identifying Katrina sex offenders and violent criminals, as well as parolees and probationers who are subject to supervision, continues to jeopardize the safety of Texans and other Katrina evacuees."
A November 2 (webstamp) story by Bill Murphy also mentioned the issue in passing:
He also said FEMA has been slow to identify sex offenders and other violent criminals among Katrina evacuees.
Homeland Security and FEMA will work to identify sex offenders and other criminals among evacuees, but the process is time consuming, said Russ Kanocki, a Homeland Security spokesman.
That's about the extent of the Chronicle coverage I could find on this matter.
On the other hand, the Star-Telegram and some other media outlets (Austin American-Statesman, San Antonio's WOAI, San Antonio Express-News, Washington Times) have dealt with the issue. Indeed, the Washington Times story offered this snippet of particular local interest:
Sgt. Flinchum said LSP sex offender databases have been shared with FEMA, the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Houston Police Department.
Mr. Perry, a Republican, said FEMA has just recently agreed to check the names of Louisiana sex offenders against the list of evacuees in various Texas shelters or apartments. Texas made that request weeks ago and had even supplied the registration list more than two weeks ago.
Steve McCraw, Texas homeland security chief, said FEMA officials had refused to share its database because of "concerns about privacy."
[snip]
"We did not pass the laws -- both at the federal and the state level -- to identify and to track sexual predators without reason," said Mr. Perry. "Any state or federal agency should have the courtesy and the professionalism to share that information. If the message is, 'We don't trust you with that information, Texas,' then I will be highly offended."
FEMA did not return calls for comment.
Andy Kahan, director of the mayor's crime victims office in Houston, called the situation "an unprecedented nightmare." He said, "We know there are a lot of bad guys out there, but we don't know who they are or where they are."
The local media could really stand to do more reporting on this story.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/12/05 02:40 PM | Houston Media | Print | Comments (4)
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