TIFS Investigates: Nearly one in six registered sex offenders in Fort Smith live within a half-mile circle

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FORT SMITH, Ark. — On a recent Saturday afternoon, unaccompanied children played in the residential streets and rental yards east of Towson Avenue. The same half-mile circle that contains those neighborhoods also holds 55 of the 346 people registered as sex offenders with the Fort Smith Police Department-nearly 16 percent of the entire city total, concentrated in an area small enough to walk in minutes.

Public records from the Arkansas Crime Information Center and local listings show the cluster centered near 2300 Towson Avenue and South W Street. The density is not evenly spread. Three properties account for a large share of the names.

At 1215 South W Street, a multi-unit complex, more than 20 registrants appear across different apartment numbers. Among them are Noe Barrozo (Level 3–High Risk), Joshua Chunn (Level 4–Sexually Dangerous Person), Danny Cole (Level 3), Daniel Cook (Level 3), Kenneth Deville (Level 3), Gregory Givan (Level 3), Denny Goines (Level 3), Anthony Howk (Level 3), Gary Johnson (Level 3), Curtis Lee (Level 3), Terry McEntire (Level 3), Bennett Moore (Level 3), Stephen Morais (Level 3), Stephen Nix (Level 3), Jimmy Phillips (Level 3), Tyler Price (Level 3), Luiz Sanchez (Level 3), Matthew Sides (Level 3), John Stewart (Level 3), Michael Wiley (Level 3), and Olish Perkins (Level 3).

A short distance away, the daily-rental motel complex in the 2300 block of Towson Avenue (publicly identified as the Super 8 area) lists another group: Devin Carrier (Level 3), Howard Chapple Jr. (Level 3), Jeremy Guillory (Level 3), Edwin Hamm (Level 4), Ronald Loomis (Level 3), John McGee Sr. (Level 3), Travis Powers (Level 3), Roy Stone (Level 3), Lonnie Symonds (Level 3), Nathan Umholtz (Level 2–Medium Risk), and Robert Norman (Level 4).

At 1721 South X Street, a single-story strip of roughly ten apartments, seven more names appear: Chance Carey (Level 3), Charles Eberhardt (Level 3), Windell Givance (Level 3), Daniel Hill (Level 3), Densel Sipes (Level 3), Dennis Sivage (Level 3), and George Webb Jr. (Level 4).

Additional registrants live in nearby rental homes and smaller addresses still inside the same radius, including Kenondrick Plummer (Level 2), Roger Prince (Level 3), Daniel English (Level 3), Sheldon Orsbun (Level 2), Gerald Todd (Level 2), Edward McBay (Level 3), Everett Parker (Level 3), Charles Burnett (Level 2), Christopher Jackson (Level 2), Michael Cruthird (Level 4), Christopher Foster (Level 2), Jeffrey Hobbs (Level 1–Low Risk), James Hardbarger (Level 2), and James Cameron (Level 3, listed as non-compliant).

Arkansas assesses offenders on a four-level scale after formal review: Level 1 (Low Risk), Level 2 (Medium Risk), Level 3 (High Risk), and Level 4 (Sexually Dangerous Person). Inside this circle the tally from the compiled list is approximately five Level 4 designations, roughly 39–40 Level 3 designations, eight Level 2 designations, and one Level 1.

The overwhelming majority are therefore classified as high risk or higher.

The same streets that house these registrants also contain multiple homes advertised for rent. On a Saturday afternoon drive through the neighborhoods immediately east of the Towson corridor, several children were observed playing outdoors without adult accompaniment.

The proximity of unsupervised children to a documented concentration of Level 3 and Level 4 offenders is the practical reason the public registries exist.

Arkansas law requires publication of higher-risk registrants so residents can remain informed. The Fort Smith Police Department directs the public to the state ACIC search tool, which allows address and radius queries and email alerts for address changes. Data are updated by law enforcement as offenders move or change status.

Sixteen percent of the city’s registered population compressed into one small circledoes not automatically equal imminent danger on any given day. It does, however, create a measurable geographic reality: high-risk and sexually dangerous designations clustered in short-term and multi-unit housing that sits beside ordinary residential streets where children play.

Awareness of that reality--checked against the official maps and maintained through ordinary supervision is the caution the numbers themselves invite.