PITTSBURGH -- A sex offender could be living in your neighborhood and you don't even know it.

State police admit they can't keep track of hundreds of sex crime convicts who are supposed to register under Megan's Law. All states must have some kind of registry of sex offenders.

In one county alone in Ohio, you can find the faces of dozens of offenders. But in Allegheny County in Pennsylvania, only one offender is listed. Does that mean Ohio has a lot more sex offenders than Pennsylvania? Not necessarily, they just keep track of them differently.

Patty Wladika said, "(It's) kind of scary because my niece and nephews come over quite a bit and I know I'll be watching them a little bit closer now."

Wladika is concerned because a sexually violent predator lives in her neighborhood. James Cozin just got out of prison a couple of months ago for the indecent assault of a 12-year-old girl. In registering under Megan's Law, he lists his home address on West Brady Street in Butler. Target 11 found Cozin, but he did not want to appear on camera.

But a man who claims to also live there did not want Target 11 taking video of the home, even though, by law, local police notify immediate neighbors that a sexually violent predator was living among them.

But how many are out there that we don't know about? In Allegheny County alone, the district attorney's office has prosecuted more than 4,000 sex offenders in the past six years.

District attorney Stephen Zappala said, "And some of these particular cases are some of the most egregious crimes that you can possibly imagine."

But if you look at the state's Megan's Law Web site only one sexually violent predator is pictured in all of Allegheny County. Because of how Pennsylvania interprets Megan's Law, you will only find convicted criminals who fit the criteria of a sexually violent predator.

State Auditor General Robert Casey said, "You could have someone living in your neighborhood who could be a threat um who doesn't have that label."

Casey said he wants to do a performance audit on Megan's Law compliance. Right now, the governor and state police are fighting it in court.

Target 11's Karen Welles asked, "Do you think Pennsylvania is measuring up when it comes to compliance?"
Gov. Ed Rendell said, "Look, are there things that fall through the cracks, absolutely."

On the day Target 11 visited the state police Megan's Law section in Harrisburg, there were nearly 7,000 offenders in its database. Officials admit up to 6 percent have not registered.

Welles asked, "Should people be alarmed that there could be someone living next door and they don't know it?"
Sgt. Kim Hawkins said, "I think that it's fair to say that there are roughly between 500 and 600 people where there are active ongoing investigations relative to some form of compliance issue."

Rendell said, "We're open to any suggestion where we can improve our response here."

In Allegheny County, Zapalla is looking into a way to put all criminal files from the clerk of courts office, including all sex offenders on the Internet.

"We have thousands of cases and I don't see a distinction between anyone of those cases in terms of, ya know, why the public shouldn't have access to them," Zapalla said.

He said he's in talks with people in the private sector to work under the criminal history information act to -- for a fee -- put all county criminal information on the Internet.

If you have a story for the Target 11 Team to investigate, call (412) 237-4963.