House Bill 1603 is sponsored by Missouri Rep. Randy Pietzman (R-Troy). The bill is making its way through the Missouri House of Representatives.

Supporters say the legislation would help to keep track of sex offenders and make sure they are being compliant. In Dallas County, seven sex offenders were found to be non-compliant over the past few months.

”We’ve set up charges on all seven, and I’ve received warrants on all but one,” said Tracy Lawson, the jail administrator in Dallas County.

Lawson does the registration for sex offenders. He says, while it would be easier to keep track of everyone if the offenders had ankle monitoring bracelets, it could get pretty expensive.

”To my knowledge, most of the GPS bracelets and everything are very expensive to maintain,” said Lawson.

In the bill language, the offender would be the one to foot the bill. It also says, when a sex offender is moving out of the county, he or she would have 3 days to register with the new county. That information would be made available to the public.

”You can go to the Missouri Highway Patrol website and search for any sex offender and where they’re supposed to be, their addresses, their offenses, the vehicles they drive,” said Lawson.