RALEIGH, N.C.--A report on North Carolina's probation system suggests that public safety is at risk because the system has either neglected or lost track of thousands of criminals.

The News & Observer of Raleigh reports that since the start of 2000, 580 people have killed in North Carolina while under the watch of state probation officers. That accounts for 17 percent of all convictions for intentional killings.

Documents and interviews show that probation officers lose contact with the people they are required to supervise.

The report's findings said probation leaders have failed to take advantage of technology advances, leaving their officers with no automatic tracking of the people under their supervision. Officers often weren't aware when probationers were arrested on new charges.

It's unclear how many of the 580 people were poorly supervised, because correction leaders declined to release records of thousands of probationers who committed serious crimes.

They did release partial records in 24 cases. The newspaper reported that probation officials failed such tasks as filing arrest warrants or hooking offenders to electronic house arrest. They ignored some probationers for more than a year, according to the newspaper.

That prevented offenders' early actions from being met with the "swift and certain response" required by the N.C. Division of Community Corrections.

Problems with the probation system were brought to light after the highly publicized killings of UNC-Chapel Hill student body president Eve Carson and Duke graduate student Abhijit Mahato. The men accused in their killings had received scant attention from probation officers in Wake and Durham counties, but state officials initially said the cases of lax oversight were unusual.