Action News Jax law and safety expert: Some sex offenders escape due to lack of manpower

A sex offender who was found days after removing his ankle monitor is being held without bond.

Action News Jax broke news of 35-year-old Robert Ferrell's arrest yesterday.

Action News Jax’s Lorena Inclan found Ferrell is one of many sex offenders to escape supervision.

LOCAL NEWS: Dog bites 3-year-old at Neptune Beach restaurant

Ferrell is now facing four charges including sex offender and parole violations. A police report shows he cut off his ankle monitor and dumped it in a trash can at a local Dollar Tree store.

Four days later, deputies found him hiding inside a home on Rues Landing Road.

Action News Jax law and safety expert Dale Carson said the ankle monitor shows “the courts were clearly concerned about his whereabouts.”

But Carson said it's not uncommon for offenders to escape from supervision once they're released.

Some slip through the cracks because of a lack of manpower.

“If that individual is a serious threat to the community, law enforcement typically is gonna pursue that individual,” Carson said.

In November 2016, we showed you the case of Brian Fogarty, who was able to elude capture for 21 days after cutting off his ankle monitor.

TRENDING: Ohio cheerleader buried baby case: 5 things we know now

According to the Florida Department of Corrections, there are 25,418 absconders; of those, nearly 600 are sex offenders.

But once they're caught, they can face stiffer penalties.

“Failure to report is a two-year minimum mandatory if they get convicted,” Carson said.

Local representative Janet Adkins is working on a bill that would create a strike force to figure out exactly how many sex offenders and predators have absconded and get them off the street.

Cox Media Group