ORLANDO, Fla. -- Dozens of sex offenders are missing in Orlando, an investigation has uncovered.

Local 6 has learned that the Orlando Police Department has fallen seriously behind in tracking down offenders, and the list of people who are unaccounted has grown in recent months.

For the past few years, Orlando police Officer Vernita Brown has been the only person dedicated to verifying sex offender addresses in the city.

But in February, she was reassigned.

New Orlando Police Chief Val Demings decided to shift all of Brown's duties to four sex crimes detectives.

"We have a new administration that thinks the citizens of Orlando would be better served with four people in our sex crimes unit to do the tracking and managing of sex offenders and predators in the city of Orlando," Orlando police Sgt. Barbara Jones said.

Local 6 has discovered that since Brown has been pulled off the job, OPD has not kept up with its verifications at "an alarming rate," Local 6's Jessica D'Onofrio reported.

In the past two months, 97 sex offenders and predators have not been verified in the city of Orlando. Four have absconded and several have not re-registered.

That means no one really knows where they are, D'Onofrio reported.

Local 6 found that more than 20 sex offenders registered at the Security Inn on West Colonial Drive have not been verified by OPD in months, according to the Inn manager.

The situation has Orange County sheriff's Sgt. Keith Hubbard concerned.

"You are taking away a person who is responsible for making sure the community is safe from sex offenders," Hubbard said.

Hubbard heads up a special task force called The Sex Offender Surveillance Squad (SOS) made up of six deputies, a U.S. marshal and an Orlando police officer.

The group is dedicated to tracking the city and county's sex offenders and each jurisdiction has helped the others with case loads.

"You didn't have one person form the Orlando Police Department working sex offender management," Hubbard said. "You had a whole team of Orange County sheriff's deputies and an OPD officer."

With 97 unverified sex offender on the streets, Hubbard is worried for future victims, Local 6 reported.

"It wasn't 97 people who kidnapped Jessica Lunsford, it was one," Hubbard said. "And I don't care how you cut that, how you dice it, how you slice it, it only takes one."

Orlando police said it is managing the sex offender verification caseload.

"We'll take care of the city and we'll continue to work with the sheriff's office on any joint efforts," Jones said. "We'll continue to do our own details as it relates to our sexual predators and offenders."

OPD said there is often down time between crimes for sex crimes investigators and their way will be more efficient.

Critics said time will tell, D'Onofrio reported.

Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.