Information — including home addresses, work streets and ZIP codes — on the approximately 2,160 people on Hawai'i's Sex Offender Registry has been updated, giving law enforcement a better way to track offenders, officials say.

The update is part of a push to keep tabs on offenders and improve ways in which local and state law-enforcement agencies work together to ensure those on the registry are abiding by the law.

The state's registered sex offenders must keep authorities updated on where they live and work.

Citing the need for greater cooperation, Honolulu police, the city prosecutor's office and the state attorney general's office have begun meeting to clarify how best to enforce requirements of the law.

Tommy Johnson, administrator of the Hawai'i Paroling Authority, said his office has sent the state attorney general's office all the updated offender information.

In addition, Johnson said he has provided the Hawai'i Criminal Justice Data Center with a "list of every sex offender we currently have an active warrant on, so that they can start working with the police jurisdictions around the state" to round them up. The Justice Data Center maintains the registry.

The information will allow police on all islands to initiate cases on the offenders for failing to register, as well as inform the state the moment an offender is captured, he said. All the warrants are for parole violations, he said.

Meanwhile, Johnson said, all sex offenders currently on parole are under what he called "close parole supervision" — "meaning we see them once or twice every two weeks, they are drug tested regularly and part of the supervision is polygraphs."

If they fail the lie detector test and are terminated from treatment because of it, they go back to prison, he said.

The recent activity coincides with a request from the Wai'anae Coast Neighborhood Board that local police go after sex offenders in the area that are wanted on outstanding warrants. The board also asked police to help verify the addresses for the more than 90 people from the area who are on the list.

The request initiated with board member Frank Slocum, who became concerned after he visited the registry's Web site and discovered some addresses were incomplete and that four paroled sex offenders were living together in one area home not far from several schools.

"We're leading the pack as far as I know on these sex offenders with 93," said Slocum, who has complained that Wai'anae has become a "dumping ground" for unpopular causes and projects.

The issue of sex offenders in the Wai'anae community arose several years ago, when school teacher Beth Matsuda launched a crusade to get rid of three halfway houses located near area schools.

The halfway houses were shut down and Matsuda's actions led to the passage of a bill introduced by state Sen. Colleen Hanabusa, D-21st (Nanakuli, Makaha), requiring input from the community before transitional houses for sex offenders can come into the community.

Now, Matsuda, Slocum and others are wondering why Wai'anae has such a high concentration of registered sex offenders.

"We're not a high density population," Matsuda said. "Is there something we need to deal with as a community that so many of our people are at risk for becoming sex offenders? Or, is someone dumping them into Wai'anae?"

Neighborhood Board chairwoman Cynthia Rezentes said the neighborhood's request was sent to police because the board is a city chartered organization and HPD seemed like a logical destination. But she said copies were mailed to a number of state officials as well.

"We're broad-banding this to everybody and telling them that, look guys, there are people in the community watching this thing," Rezentes said. "We're concerned."

Police responded to the board that the issue of offenders wanted on warrants is a statewide problem, and to just go after offenders in Wai'anae would be impractical, Rezentes said.

As to the concerns about halfway houses, Johnson said facilities of this nature with fewer than five sex offenders aren't required to notify the neighborhood board.

Even though it's not a legal requirement, Johnson said as of last week he had taken action to move two of the four parolees out of the Wai'anae home in question within the next 30 days. He said he made the move in response to the community's concerns.

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.