U.S. Marshals' 'Operation Trick No Treat' nets sex offenders

Given there is zero reason to have U.S. Marshals doing this, my guess is they are trying to justify their existence, esp. with crime being down nationally.

10-30-2010 New Jersey:

A squad of armed officers got a jump on Halloween this week, sweeping up more than a dozen unregistered sex offenders in North Jersey during “Operation Trick No Treat.”

It was the first time out of the box for a new unit, the Sex Offender Investigations Branch of the U.S. Marshals Service. And it began with 61 case files of people convicted of raping, molesting or fondling minors or adults.

Of the sixty-one cases, an administrative ‘filtering process’ closed 24 cases: The offenders were either dead, locked up or in the hands of other jurisdictions.

"...or in the hands of other jurisdictions." In other words, they had legally moved and for unmentioned reasons, the records were not updated by the police, which lead to them being listed as non-compliant. The failure of registering agencies, or computer programming, cost taxpayers.

The squad then tracked down the 37 others, completing 235 early-morning compliance checks, leading to 14 arrests.

14 arrests, that means 5.9% of their registrants were out of compliance. That number keeps coming up no matter whether it is compliance or recidivism.

All were charged with failing to register and/or failure to verify address change, under Megan‘s Law.

In addition to the arrests, the Marshals Service said, “leads were developed and forwarded to other agencies for enforcement.”

Forty officers in all participated -- from agencies that included the Hudson, Passaic and Morris county prosecutor’s offices, Port Authority police, the state Corrections Department, and Paterson and Newark police, among others.

The unit’s mission is to protect the public from sex offenders and offenders against children by assisting jurisdictions in locating and apprehending sex offenders who violate sex offender registration requirements. ..Source.. CliffviewPiolet.com

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Sweep updates E.L. sex offender information

Here we begin to see what "non compliant" means, one reason is failed to keep paperwork up to date. I have no idea what that could mean, because all paperwork is completed by registrants in front of the registering agent, and if there is anything wrong with it, the agent should catch it and ask the registrant to fix it right then and there. Michigan -like other states- is going broke, but they can afford to send a TEAM of police to a registrant's home because of some paperwork glitch, which is really the state's error for not catching it when the registrant was standing in front of the agent. What happened to using one's brain in this situation, a letter to registrant, come in to fix ___ ___ by ___ date, rather than pay the salaries of a TEAM of police. The people in charge of this mess should be paying for these state errors, out of their paychecks.

10-22-2010 Michigan:


There are 900 registered sex offenders in Ingham County. And police don’t know where 31 of them are.

These are the results of recent sex offender sweeps through the tri-county area of Ingham, Eaton and Clinton counties.

The sweeps target registered sex offenders to ensure they have not given false information and are keeping up with the fines and paperwork associated with their sentence.

Many of the registered sex offenders do not pose a serious problem. Ingham County has a 93 percent compliance rate. From the 62 noncompliant offenders, 31 either have failed to pay a fee or keep their paperwork up to date, and 31 did not update the police when they changed their residency, or absconded.

The state of Michigan has a 92.5 percent compliance rate amongst its sex offenders.

Officers from multiple agencies joined together to perform the sweeps. There are various types of sweeps done throughout the year. On Tuesday, police performed a sweep called “Operation Verify.”

The sweep targets registered sex offenders who failed to verify their address in the first 15 days of October.

“If they didn’t check in with law enforcement, we’ll go in and target those offenders if they forgot, or ended up in jail, moved and didn’t change their address or decided not to comply,” Michigan State Police trooper Tim Burchell said.

Last year the State Police performed a random residence check for all registered sex offenders in the area.
Those who do not comply can be charged with anything from a simple misdemeanor to a four-year felony charge.

If a registered sex offender does not appear to be living at the listed address, police will continue looking for them, employing the help of the U.S. Marshal if the offender has left the area or the state, Deputy U.S. Marshal Joe Guzman said.

“We have a nationwide network of investigators more capable of handling them,” Guzman said. “Some are very difficult to locate. Some take years to locate.”

Burchell said police do not know the location of fewer than one percent of offenders in the local area.

“People can hide if they want to,” Burchell said. “It’s not always easy to find people, especially if they cross state lines and change their names. Usually we end up finding them, it just might take a while.”

Of the 21 registered sex offenders in East Lansing, 20 are compliant and 19 are on a 25-year sentence, which corresponds to a less serious crime, such as indecent exposure.

One resident is on a life sentence, usually assigned to sex offenders who have committed a more serious crime, such as rape or sexual assault, and one has a sentence period of less than 25 years.

East Lansing police Capt. Kim Johnson said the East Lansing Police Department has an officer to keep track of registered sex offenders in the area.

“The sex offenders, it’s not a big problem,” Johnson said. “We do not have a lot who live here in our city.” ..Source.. Emily Wilkins

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Law enforcement wraps up yearly sex offender sweep

Although there are some interesting statistics below, I wonder why "Domestic Violence" money was used to perform sex offender address verifications? And, notice the number of officers involved, which equates to SALARIES!

10-20-2010 Illinois:

The eighth annual family violence and apprehension detail closed in Lincoln County with just 20 registered sex offenders out of compliance after the Oct. 12 sweep. The event was part of the National Family Violence Apprehension Detail, involving hundreds of law enforcement officers across the nation.

Officers made nearly 200 contacts with registered sex offenders throughout Lincoln County to assure that individuals were in compliance with rules placed on registered sex offenders; only 20 individuals were out of compliance, according to a press release by the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office.

A 15-officer team made 182 contacts with registered sex offenders to verify compliance. There were 88 attempts to arrest individuals wanted on warrants for domestic violence-related crimes, according to Lincoln County Sheriff's Detective Quentin Bendel.

The Domestic Violence Enhanced Response Team includes the Lincoln County District Attorney's office, LCSO, Lincoln City, Newport and Toledo Police Departments, the Oregon State Police and county Community Corrections officers.

"The coordination and cooperation between the law enforcement agencies in Lincoln County was the principal reason for the success of this campaign. The officers involved in the sweep worked as a team and made contacts in and out of their respective jurisdictions," said Sheriff Dennis Dotson. "This effort is but one more example of our officers, troopers and deputies' commitment to making Lincoln County a safer place to live."

Bendel said that the number of overall contacts was "probably up 10 to 15 percent" over the 2009 figures, but the number of arrests were down. In some cases, this was because the individual in question was not where law enforcement thought they would be.

There were no problems or incidents during the Oct. 12 sweep. "This [sweep] actually went pretty well," Bendel said.

In 2009, the Lincoln County District Attorney's office handled 381 cases involving domestic violence. In the first nine -and-a-half months of 2010, the office has seen 283 cases. In 2009, there were 75 sexual crimes involving adults, including failure to register as a sex offender and 73 child sex crimes this year, there have been 63 adult sexual crimes and 107 involving children. ..Source.. April Bamburg

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Sex Offender Sweep Kicks Off

Amazing, sever years they have done this, and all that has been accomplished is to incarcerate those who failed to update the address of where they sleep for a few hours of the day/night. Not only do taxpayers foot the bill for the time spent by the officers to do the address checks, taxpayers will also pay for the costs of jailing those who failed to update addresses. The registry is nothing but a failed theory, and in the process has ruined many lives.

The saddest fact is, that police (see below) truly believe that by knowing an address, they then know where the registrant is. Yes, when s/he is sleeping, but for the rest of the day, they have no idea where the registrant is. Unbelievable! I guess they are trying to protect their jobs by bamboozling the public.

10-19-2010 Michigan:

Law enforcement across the state are going door to door in a statewide crack down on sex offenders. The effort kicked off Monday and it means that sex offenders who failed to register their current address can expect a knock on their door from authorities.

The Michigan State Police says 46,533 registered sex offenders are listed in the Great Lakes state. And each offender is required to tell authorities where they live every three months.

They've had two weeks to make contact. Police say those who haven't, can expect a knock on the door.

"We're gonna check there last registered address to see if they're still residing there. And if they are not residing there then we'll submit a warrant request to the prosecutors office requesting charges," said Trooper Timothy Burchell.

Burchell says offenders who fail to verify their address face 93 days in jail and up to a four year felony charge. Burchell says 92% of sex offenders in the state are accounted for. 93% are accounted for in Clinton, Eaton and Ingham counties.

As for the other 7%, Burchell says they may or may not live at their last verified address. Either way, he says society has the right to know and the offenders are obligated to comply.

"For every offender that's on the list, there's a victim and the victim's family that's out there that would like peace of mind knowing where that offender is. Some of these guys are predatorial offenders and if we don't monitor them, there is a chance of recidivism. And we want to make sure that we can keep track of them as prescribed by the law," says Burchell.

This is the seventh year for "Operation Verify." ..Source.. WLNS.com


State police commence statewide sex offender sweep

SAGINAW — Beginning Monday and concluding Oct. 29, state police will perform a sweep of convicted sex offenders throughout the state who failed to verify their addresses as required by law.

Known as “Operation Verify,” this is the seventh compliance check of its kind that the state law enforcement agency has conducted.

“This sweep will take place directly following the Oct. 1st through 15th quarterly verification period, which will allow for a more accurate list of true non-compliant offenders,” said State Police Director Col. Eddie L. Washington Jr. “This also means that felony-listed offenders who want to spare themselves a visit from a police officer should be sure to verify their address with law enforcement during the first 15 days of October.”

Of 1,512 offenders checked during a similar sweep that concluded in February, there were 179 arrests and 248 requests for arrest warrants.

Anyone convicted of a misdemeanor sex offense must verify their address with an area law enforcement agency once per year in January, while felony offenders must verify in January, April, July and October.

A change of address must be reported within 10 days of the change.

As of August there were 46,400 offenders on the state Sex Offender Registry, 42,945 of whom were in compliance with verification requirements. ..Source.. by Gus Burns | The Saginaw News

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Federal Marshals Crack Down On Local Sex Offenders

This is so pointless on several levels: First, all the registry is, is a list w/pics of where registrants sleep a few hours of the day/night. How does that protect anyone? Secondly, look at the cost of these multiagency address checks; what a waste of taxpayer money and never a dime for therapy which is proven to be helpful to society.

Remember this, since it has been reported time and time again, that only 5.3% of former offenders are arrested within 3 years of release, that also means that, 95%+ of what these Marshals and local agencies are doing is ABSOLUTE WASTE. WHY do this, it makes no sense?

9-9-2010 Maine:

The United States Marshal Service is teaming up with local law enforcement agencies to track the whereabouts of convicted sex offenders.

As part of a new initiative called Operation Guardian, a team of law enforcement officials go door to door in local communities to make sure registered sex offenders are keeping their work and home addresses up to date in the sex offender registry.

Operation Guardian led to five arrests in Portland on Thursday alone. ..Source.. by News 13

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Police begin checking on sex offenders

This is the kind of story that blows my mind. Officers from 10 (TEN) official agencies go out to check addresses. In this a time of need, the pocketbooks of taxpayers are being bled dry with stupidity like this. This is nothing more than "Police Sensationalism" no different than when Lawmakers enact a new sex offender law because it "Sounds Good" without an ounce of proof that it will make anyone safer. Have we lost our minds, we should make all officials justify -financially- what they do BEFORE allowing them to do it.

BTW: There isn't a study yet that proves -address verifications- make anyone safer, but there are studies showing such checks make the community, more paranoid. Knowing where these folks sleep for a few hours of the day, is a total waste of time, and there is no relationship between knowing where they sleep and reduced crime rates; zero! This is likened to a bowling tournament, to find out whose best at -compliance-, frankly I don't care who has the best compliance rate. It makes more sense to me that police should fight crime, and not babysit, esp. at their salaries.

6-21-2010 Michigan:

Visit 'to verify they are where they say they are'

For the next two weeks, police officers in Calhoun County and across Michigan will visit many of the state's 46,000 registered sex offenders.

Twice each year, police conduct a sex offender registry sweep to verify that offenders are living where they are registered.

"We want to check and verify and deal with any noncompliant offenders," said Trooper Jim Gochanour of the Michigan State Police at Battle Creek.

He said troopers from the post -- along with officers from Battle Creek, Emmett Township, Marshall, Albion, Springfield, Homer, the Calhoun County Sheriff Department, the Huron Potawatomi Police Department and the prosecutor's office -- will be visiting the listed residences for nearly 300 registered sex offenders in the county.

"We go to the door to verify they are where they say they are," Gochanour said.

Calhoun County has 726 registered sex offenders, a number that is constantly changing as people move and new names are placed on the list. About 70 of them are incarcerated and nearly 300 are known to be compliant, the trooper said.

Officers throughout the year update and verify the registry for Calhoun County, but Gochanour said the semi-annual sweep is executed to collect data throughout the state.

Calhoun County has a 94 percent compliance rate, compared to 92 percent statewide.

While Calhoun County is 14th in the state in compliance rate, Gochanour said many counties with prisons or large jails have higher rates because many offenders on the registry are locked up.

Sex offenders on the registry must verify their addresses with police four times a year, or whenever they move.

Gochanour said some offenders give police an address but then live with a girlfriend, as an example, in an apartment that prohibits felons as residents, or with someone who lives too close to a school or playground, which is prohibited. He said sometimes offenders list one address but live somewhere else to avoid harassment from neighbors.

He said family and friends often try to hide information that the offender is not living at the reported address.

Police who visit residences also will be looking for any other offenses, and Gochanour expects some of those being checked will be arrested on new charges, perhaps unrelated to their original convictions.

"We are not just narrowly focused," Gochanour said. "We are looking for other things." ..Source.. Trace Christenson

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Cuyahoga deputies short-handed as they check on sex offenders

11-20-2009 Ohio:

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cuyahoga County has the most sex offenders in Ohio, but only two full-time deputies regularly check on the 1,416 people considered the worst offenders.

Other large Ohio counties have fewer offenders than Cuyahoga's 3,300 but use more deputies to perform the state-mandated address verifications for Tier III offenders such as rapists. Franklin County uses five; Summit and Hamilton counties each use four.

Residents on Imperial Avenue in Cleveland never knew Anthony Sowell was a convicted sex offender until police unearthed 11 bodies from his property.

Neighbors questioned why they weren't notified by the Sheriff's Office about Sowell's violent past. He served 15 years in prison for attempted rape. Those residents never knew because Sowell moved into the house after getting out of prison in 2005 -- three years before a law took effect that would have notified neighbors about his past.

Sowell was required to register his address with deputies every three months. He did it most recently on Sept. 2. A deputy verified it Sept. 22 -- eight hours before prosecutors say Sowell attacked a woman in his home.

The two Cuyahoga County deputies who knock on doors nearly every day said the law requires them to spend considerable time checking low-level offenders instead of the most dangerous offenders.

"This is a process sometimes," Deputy Marty Lutz said. "Our best efforts could be spent elsewhere. The laws need to be more specific. We only enforce them, not make policy."

State law requires people convicted of sex offenses to be classified in one of three groupings. The classification is based on a person's conviction and criminal history. Tier I offenders are considered the least dangerous, for crimes such as voyeurism and sexual imposition. Tier III is for the most crimes, such as rape or kidnapping a minor.

Tier I and Tier II sex offenders are required to register their addresses once a year with the sheriff's offices, and whenever they move.

A 2008 law -- known as the Adam Walsh Act, named after the Florida boy who was abducted and killed in 1981 -- forced Tier III offenders to personally register their address every 90 days. Deputies are required to perform spot checks every year if the address is unchanged.

But if an address changes, the law requires deputies to verify it. Then notices are mailed to every address within a 1,000-feet radius of the offender's home.

Since Sowell was already living on Imperial Avenue when the law changed, deputies were not required to inform his neighbors about his criminal record and Tier III status.

Some Tier III offenders move three or four times each year, requiring additional verifications and notices to be mailed to new addresses, Deputy Rodney Blanton said.

"It's just the two of us for 3,500 offenders," Blanton said. "We're stretched thin."

Cuyahoga County spends about $100,000 each year to mail postcards to homes, schools and commercial buildings near offenders, said sheriff's Lt. Don Michalosky, who heads the Sex Offender Unit.

The office sends between 4,000 and 5,000 notices each week, but the number can be as high as 9,000, Michalosky added. Two deputies and two civilian clerks perform the work.

Many other counties in Ohio contract the work to a private company. Watch Systems LLC of Louisiana handles the mail notifications for about 70 of Ohio's 88 counties and the e-mail notifications for all counties, said Bob Cornwell, head of the Buckeye State Sheriffs' Association.

Cuyahoga County began negotiations in June and is close to reaching a deal with the company to handle the mailings, Michalosky said.

Hamilton County uses free labor to conduct many of its checks. Full-time deputies perform the checks, but the county also requires every special deputy to donate eight hours a month to the detail. That allows four deputies to do the work every day, spokesman Steve Barnett said.

Special deputies are sworn law enforcement officers who have a commission with arrest powers that allows them to carry a firearm. But unlike traditional deputies, they are not paid and do not typically work in a formal capacity for the county sheriff.

Most sheriffs use them to supplement their ranks for special events, such as funerals and parades. The rosters are usually filled by retired officers who use the commission to get private security jobs.

The Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office has more than 100 special deputies, and none perform any official work for the office.

Verifying addresses is time consuming. On a recent shift, Lutz and Blanton verified about 10 addresses.

They started on Cleveland's West Side and ended up in Cleveland Heights. Many people didn't answer doors when Lutz and Blanton knocked. Several spoke with the deputies and confirmed that an offender lived in the home or apartment.

A man on West 47th Street had no idea that a Tier III offender lived across the street from him until Lutz gave him a notice.

"He just moved in there," the man said about the offender. "If his victim is a kid, I want to know."

After an address for a Tier III offender is verified, deputies leave notices on doors of immediate neighbors and at the police station and school board in the city.

Lutz wishes more time could be spent verifying addresses and less on paperwork.

"There has to be a better way," he said. "We have to keep after these people."

The addresses of sex offenders registered in Cuyahoga County are available online through the sheriff's Web site. But residents may not know about the sex offenders living near them for several reasons, Lutz said

"Sometimes people in the poorer neighborhoods don't have computers," Lutz said. "In some places, people are less inclined to answer the door. They immediately think the worst that they're in trouble."

Deputies check on scores of what Lutz calls "Romeo and Juliet" cases, in which men, typically in their late teens or early 20s, were convicted of having consensual sex with underage girls and are classified as Tier I or Tier II offenders. Some neighbors don't seem as bothered by those types of cases, he said, and deputies think their time would be better spent checking on people who molested children or forcibly raped women.

"We want the public to have confidence," Lutz said. "The law is universally covering everybody. The system need an overhaul. The threats are the violent people and the ones who have sex with children."

Blanton said he has noticed a difference in people's behaviors ever since police found the 11 bodies in Sowell's home and that many more are willing to answer questions when deputies show up. Prior to the discovery, many people refused to take the notices, he said.

"Everybody wants to know now about who is living near them," Blanton said. "Now it looks like everybody has woken up. They all want to help now." ..Source.. Mark Puente, The Plain Dealer

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CA- Garrido Case Puts New Meaning to Sex Offender Sweep

Article title is a bit misleading, it should say "for those on parole or probation" because the searching mentioned below simply is impossible for those not on parole or probation. Law enforcement would need probable cause and a warrant for folks not on parole or probation, even to search the property if the RSO was a homeowner. Yet for folks on parole or probation they can expect extra whatever LE can think of, until they get tired of doing this which will happen at some point.

9-18-2009 California:

Agents surrounded a motel in southern Santa Clara County Wednesday night on a stake out for sex offenders.

Back in July 2008, this same team searched the Antioch back yard of Phillip Garrido and found nothing.

Agents says they didn’t realize at the time how far Garrido’s property line ran and missed finding kidnap victim Jaycee

Dugard. They say they don’t want to make the same mistake again.

Both Phillip and Nancy Garrido have already been charged in the Dugard kidnapping case. They've pleaded not guilty.

"Our main concern is we don't have another Garrido incident in this county, or any other county in the area," said Lt. Ed

Wise of the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office.

More than 60 undercover agents with the SAFE, Sex Assault Felony Enforcement, Task Force fanned out across the South Bay the last two nights, checking up on sex offenders. It was an official 48 hour sweep.

The undercover team knew seven registered sex offenders were living in the motel and it was time to check up on them.

"I was just eating dinner, watching TV. It was unexpected. I don't know what's going on," said Jose Luis Gonzalez, a man

convicted of lewd and lascivious acts against a child.

While he sat on a chair in cuffs outside his motel room, agents searched his room. They found a beer bottle and a porn

magazine. Both are parole violations.

Gonzalez later told NBC Bay Area News, "I was going to throw it away. It's my fault, so I shouldn't have kept it in my room

at all."

Two doors down, his neighbor, Robert Joseph Hernandez, was also in cuffs. His violation was being in possession of a gun.

Gonzalez told NBC Bay Area, "It was just junk, man. Jesus Christ, man."

Gonzalez and Hernandez will now have to explain to a judge why they violated their parole.

The sweeps ended at 10 p.m. Thursday.

An undercover agent in the operation told NBC Bay Area News, "Were protecting the public from the worst, dangerous criminals

that there are, the predators and people who hurt our children."

In two nights, the agents visited almost 250 registered sex offenders.

Most were following the rules.

But a few, like Gonzalez and Hernandez, found themselves behind bars again. ..Source.. by DAMIAN TRUJILLO

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NC- Keeping track of sex offenders

Hummm, like registrants -those not on parole or probation- have nothing to do all day but sit home waiting for a STUPID registered letter from a paranoid police agency. Some folks could be visiting on vacation or away for other reasons normal to life, then wind up in prison because they didn't return a STUPID letter within 3 days. Obviously they have made arrangements for the sick and disabled and those in nursing homes, all folks who have no way to respond to the STUPID letter?

6-7-2009 North Carolina:

An arduous - but crucial - step in protecting the community

If you're a registered sex offender in Lenoir County, expect a registered letter from the sheriff's office every three months asking you to confirm your residence.

You, along with the other 100 or so offenders in the county, have three days to respond.

But lawmen say there are tricks to get around this mail-driven confirmation put in place for public safety - offenders can have another person fill out and return the letter on their behalf, for instance - and old-fashioned police work is key to sniffing them out.

That's where Lenoir County Sheriff's Deputy Troy Moye enters the picture. For the past year, the 10-year sheriff's office veteran and his supervisor have played a major role in keeping tabs on a growing list of sex offenders in Lenoir County, focusing particularly on where the offenders live.

"We take this very seriously," Moye said. "We are doing something with the sex offender registry every single day."

State law places severe restrictions on where registered sex offenders can live and even where they can visit.

"Even if there's a person whose ... son plays basketball and they want to go to a sporting event at the school," Moye said, "they have to check in with the school administration first to see if they will allow them to come and visit the school for that recreation activity for their son or their daughter - they just can't show up.

"Why? Because there are a lot of teenagers and underage kids at that school and they're a registered sex offender."

Neither can sex offenders live within 300 feet of a daycare or school - a restriction tightened during December, when the law stated they had to live more than 1,000 feet away.

Moye said the majority of his residence checks are done Fridays, when he tries to verify 10 to 12 addresses, depending on how long each stop takes. The checks are done alphabetically and spontaneously - the nature of the crime makes no difference to Moye's duty, although the offender's criminal history and photograph are among the documents he's sure to check beforehand.

If the offender's home, Moye asks them a fill out a form and provide identification and he's on his way.

"Some of them will be like, ‘Why are you here? I sent my letter in,' " Moye said. "I still need to make a physical check to make sure that is where (they're) living.

"In three days, they could move. We won't know unless we come out and make these periodic, physical checks."

If the offender is not there, Moye launches an investigation, which begins with his noted observations from the residence.

Chatting with neighbors, stopping by the offender's work or taking statements from anyone at the residence are methods Moye uses to help him get his man or woman; it's also not uncommon for Moye to pull over a car he sees at the residence several days later in hopes of gaining information on the offender's whereabouts.

Lawmen rely heavily on fear of the felony charges that can come from helping a sex offender hide.

"Most people don't have a problem with (writing a statement)," Moye said. "They don't want to be tied up in the situation themselves."

This documentation, Moye said, is often used in court and can even aid unrelated investigations in which the offender is a person of interest.

It's the law

A person who is required to register is guilty of a Class F felony if they:

Fail to register

Fail to notify the last registering sheriff of a change of address

Fail to return a verification notice

Forge or submit under false pretenses the information or verification notices required

..Source.. by Justin Schoenberger, Staff Writer

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AL- Officers check on sex offenders during Operation House Call in Mobile County

Are we looking at a crime scene photo of a peeping tom? No, it is a law enforcement officer (from an unknown force, see list below) peeping into a RSOs window. I certainly hope the RSO is one on parole or probation, if not, then this is a crime scene photo. Further, notice the searching of mail boxes, a federal crime, finally their alleged purpose was to verify the ADDRESS of this RSO, then anything beyond that is not permitted by law; notice how they not only wanted to verify other information but also gather any new information they could coerce out of the RSO or neighbors. I love the toys on the lawn of a home where a RSO is not home, typical setup by neighbors to get rid of a RSO. I will be following up on this if possible. Simply unbelievable, hopefully the RSO who owns that home and sees this, if not on parole or probation, files charges against that officer!

5-26-2009 Alabama:

MOBILE, Ala. -- The U.S. Marshals and 10 other local law enforcement agencies on Wednesday wrapped up Operation House Call, a hush-hush undertaking to verify the addresses of 346 of Mobile County's sex offenders.

Operation House call was "designed to be unpredictable," U.S. Marshal Inspector Ross Hebert said, unlike routine checks run by compliance officers. Those checks, Hebert said, happen the same time each year, and the offenders are notified in advance.

But Monday through Wednesday this week, the offenders had no idea they'd be checked.

"It will be a true indicator of where we stand with our sex offenders, and we'll really get to see how successful our sex offender programs are," Hebert said last week during a planning meeting.

Sex offenders are required to register with law enforcement agencies after they are released from prison.

During the checks, law enforcement officers verified 284 addresses, with 37 that "require further investigation" and 25 others that could not be verified or still need to be checked, according to a news release.

During the three-day detail, officers worked in 15 teams of two, each with a stack of file folders containing information about the sex offenders, from where they live and the car they are believed to drive to locations of tattoos and whether they have piercings.

In some cases, the officers had to verify offenders' addresses by talking to neighbors, doing a mailbox search or surveying the property.

Officers were also asked to gather extra information, such as cell phone numbers and e-mail addresses. One man's e-mail address included a reference to male anatomy; another man told the officer that his screen name was "holleruntilithurts."

None of the offenders were arrested during the operation, Hebert said, but charges may be brought in some of the 37 open cases.

For example, at one house in the Tillman's Corner area, the officers could not find the sex offender but did find children's toys scattered about the front and back yards.

The sex offender was convicted in 1992 of first-degree rape and firs-degree sex abuse after he sexually assaulted an 8-year-old and 11-year-old girl. He was released in 2002.

Sex offenders are not allowed to live with children or allow them to visit their home. Hebert took photos and passed the information on to the offender's compliance officer.

"It will be investigated," he said.

Participating in the operation were law enforcement officers from the U.S. Marshals, Mobile Police Department, Mobile County Sheriff's Office, FBI, Prichard Police Department, Bayou La Batre Police Department, Saraland Police Department, University of South Alabama Police Department, Mobile Community Corrections Center and Alabama State Probation and Parole. ..News Source.. by Jillian Kramer, Staff Reporter

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WA- Level 1 sex felons see better scrutiny

Sad, succes is defined by the act of effectively updating a telephone book, what a price to pay for such menial work. Notice not one mention of crime before or after updating the phone book.

4-12-2009 Washington:

But ‘wildly successful’ address verifications need new state budget funds to continue

For nearly two decades, most of the hundreds of low-risk registered sex offenders living in Pierce County went about their lives unchecked by law enforcement.

Tacoma police and Pierce County sheriff’s detectives focused on the offenders considered most likely to commit new crimes – known as Level 3s – and some of the Level 2 sex offenders.

Because of limited resources, Level 1 offenders, considered the least likely to re-offend, hardly got a look.

That’s changed, thanks to more than $485,000 in state grant money doled out last summer to law enforcement agencies in Pierce County.

With the new money officers have been knocking on doors and verifying that all 2,585 sex offenders – not just the Level 3s – are living where they say they are. They’ve checked all the sex offenders once and are going through the list again. So far, Tacoma police and the Sheriff’s Department have made 3,306 checks.

Officers throughout the county will continue the checks until the grant runs out in June. Whether they’ll continue checking on all offenders will depend on the outcome of budget talks in the Legislature to see if the money will again be available.

Since the checks started in July, they’ve turned up dozens of people – nearly all Level 1s – not living at the addresses they’d listed when they registered as sex offenders. Those offenders now face criminal charges that carry jail or even prison time.

(eAdvocate Post)


In the first nine months of the grant, prosecutors charged 279 people with failure to register as a sex offender. The grant has enabled local agencies to update 20 years worth of files on low-level sex offenders.

The information is more accurate and current, which saves time and focuses resources during investigations that might involve sex offenders, such as a child kidnapping, said Tacoma police detective Douglas Fuller.

Overall, the program has been “wildly successful,” said Tacoma assistant police chief Jim Howatson.

A statewide task force suggested the program after the kidnapping and slaying of 12-year-old Zina Linnik in 2007. Terapon Dang Adhahn, a Level 1 sex offender living in Parkland, pleaded guilty to charges related to the Tacoma girl’s death.

Obviously this level 1 sex offender was living at the address registered, and nothing about that person's registration led to their capture. Hence, what good is the registry?

Gov. Chris Gregoire put together the task force to look at how authorities handled Adhahn, who had a 1990 conviction for a sex offense. Adhahn went through treatment and got out of prison, and detectives tried at least once to find him but never did.

“One of the premier recommendations was that we not just pretend to hold sex offenders accountable but that we actually do it,” Don Pierce, executive director for the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, said of the task force.

To make that happen, the Legislature last year set aside $5 million for local authorities to verify that all sex offenders are living where they say they are. State law calls for Level 1 offenders to be checked once a year, Level 2 offenders twice a year and Level 3s three times a year.

Pierce County agencies hope the money will continue after the grant ends in June, but that’s uncertain given the state’s projected budget shortfall of nearly $9 billion.

“It’s the biggest impact on the community for the smallest amount of dollars,” said Tacoma police Sgt. Jen Mueller, who oversees detectives assigned to investigate sexual assaults.

.The governor included $10 million for the program in her two-year, $72.3 billion budget proposal in December.

The House’s operating budget proposal, released last month, also includes $10 million for the program over the next two years. The Senate’s proposal provides $5 million.

“That’s an extreme concern for chiefs and sheriffs in the state,” said Pierce of the sheriffs and police chiefs association, which administers the grant. “Without the program being fully funded, there will be a huge gap in our ability to keep the community safe.”

Statewide, more than 13,250 checks have been done, with officers finding more than 500 offenders who weren’t where they should have been.

The grant money allowed the Tacoma, Lakewood and Puyallup police departments and the Sheriff’s Department to send officers and detectives out on overtime to verify the addresses, no matter the offender’s classification.

Tacoma police and the Sheriff’s Department – the two largest law enforcement agencies in the county – have the most offenders to check and have spent the most money doing so.

Tacoma police started the verifications Nov. 1 and have done 1,619, spending $101,258.46 of the grant money.

During the first nine months of the grant, the Sheriff’s Department has made 1,804 address verifications. The department has spent $125,340 of the grant money so far.

NOTE: Using these figures it costs $66.20 per verification. Consider the costs nationally, $39,720,000 to simply verify addresses; totally insane for a program that has not proved its worth in any study whatsoever.

Tacoma police and the Sheriff’s Department now are meeting state sex offender verification laws that set the frequency of address checks.

“We’re in compliance, which has never happened before,” said sheriff’s Capt. Brent Bomkamp.

The grant “has been a godsend,” he said.

The two departments are seeing more offenders than in the past come in when they’re up for renewal and checking in when they change addresses.

“It’s going to be a slow process but it’s the best thing that ever happened,” said Tacoma detective Fuller. “The offender community is beginning to realize they are being checked. They are being accountable.”


SEX OFFENDER CHECKS THEN AND NOW

A state grant has allowed Pierce County’s four largest law enforcement agencies to revamp their address checks on registered sex offenders.


PIERCE COUNTY SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT

Before: A detective sergeant, two detectives and two office assistants tracked 1,100 sex offenders and maintained records on them. The team checked all Level 3 offenders, some Level 2s but none of the nearly 800 Level 1s.

Now: A group of deputies and detectives, working on overtime, checks on all three levels of sex offenders. Officials hope to train all patrol deputies so that in the future they check on Level 1 offenders when they’re able and detectives check on levels 2 and 3.

TACOMA POLICE DEPARTMENT

Before: Two detectives handled sex offender registration and verification for the more than 1,100 offenders. They spent most of their time tracking Level 3 offenders, notifying neighborhoods where they move and meeting with the offenders face to face. More than 800 Level 1 offenders in the city were largely left alone.

Now: A group of detectives has been trained to make the checks, which are done on overtime.


LAKEWOOD POLICE DEPARTMENT

Before: Each patrol officer was given four of the city’s 200-plus Level 1s to check twice a year. Detectives and neighborhood police officers checked on the other 80 or so Level 2s and Level 3s every month.

Now: The grant money allows officers to do assigned checks on overtime, leaving regular work hours to their caseloads.


PUYALLUP POLICE DEPARTMENT

Before: One patrol officer did the address checks on close to 80 sex offenders as his other duties allowed.

Now: Starting in January, the department expanded the roster of who does the checks. Now officers and detectives on overtime do the work. ..News Source.. by STACEY MULICK

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VT- State police conduct 2-county check of sex offenders

A review of all sex offender laws could not turn up a single law requiring the registrant, to be home when address checks are done, or even respond to the knock on the door if they are, registrants have no responsibility to take part in address verifications. Here police mention 3 they could not verify, will they issue an arrest warrant, if so on what legal grounds? The importance placed on knowing where registrant's live is overrated as they may be there for a mere 2-3-4-6 hours, just to sleep. Effectively police monitor sleeping registrants.

9-17-2008 Vermont:

Vermont State Police detectives spent about eight hours Monday knocking on doors in Orange and Washington counties to make sure sex offenders are living where they should be.

Vermont's Sex Offender Registry requires that convicted sex offenders tell the state where they live, and 31 of the 34 people police visited Monday were in compliance.

Police are still investigating the three sex offenders whose residency they could not confirm Monday, said Lt. Brian Miller.

The six detectives from the Middlesex and Williston barracks conducted the compliance check in towns where Vermont State Police are the primary law enforcement agency, said Miller.

The day's effort took police from Duxbury to Orange and up to Cabot. If the sex offender was not at the residence – and half of them were not — police spoke with another person at the house, neighbors or looked for a name on a mailbox to get confirmation of residency, according to Miller.

Vermont's compliance rate for sex offenders living at the proper residence hovers around 98 percent, according to Sheri Englert, the Sex Offender Registry Program Coordinator.

In contrast, Florida has an 80 percent compliance rate, said Sen. Richard Sears, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Non-compliance with the registry is one of the "red flags" that tells law enforcement officials that they need to keep a close eye on a sex offender, said Sears.

"What we know is that when sex offenders are not compliant with the registry – in other words, when they're hiding something – that's when they're the most dangerous," said Sears.

-Absolute nonsense, personal belief, and not backed up by any form of statistics. This is one way the police further public hysteria.

It became clear how important registry compliance is after speaking with governors and legislators from other states, as well as national experts, Sears said. And in 2007, the Legislature created a second offense of not complying with the registry and made it a felony.

The type of sweep conducted by Vermont State Police this week is rare, Miller said. Compliance checks are usually done in conjunction with "warrant roundups," he said.

"We usually don't have details dedicated to this type of thing," said Miller. "We just thought it was a good thing to do."

Sending police to knock on doors is a more "hands-on" approach to checking on sex offenders, said Englert. The more routine way is to send letters to sex offenders who then have 10 days to return the inquiry to the Department of Public Safety to confirm their address, she said.

Each sex offender living in a community in Vermont gets one of those letters per year, Englert said. ..News Source.. by Thatcher Moats Times Argus Staff

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FL- Local man helps Port St. Lucie police keep track of sex offenders

Notice the address verification statistics at the end of this article. Necessary or harassment?

6-3-2008 Florida:

PORT ST. LUCIE — If you want to know who is out there protecting children from sex offenders, the name Vinnie Byrne stands out.

Byrne is a special investigator with the Port St. Lucie Police Sex Offender Program. His job, assisted by seven other officers, is to keep track of the sex offenders who live within the city.

"This unit, which has over 150 years of police experience, is a huge asset to the community because these eight passionate good guys are dedicated to watching the bad guys, and that keeps our children safe," said police spokesman Officer Robert Vega.

Byrne, who is a 24-year veteran in law enforcement, said that making sure sex offenders stay within the law is not always easy.

"To get the job done right means synchronizing our efforts with the probation and parole offices of the state Department of Corrections and the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office," said Byrne.

Byrne indicated that the team generally works from a list of offenders registered with the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office and the web site of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, but a lot of information comes from the street.

Eight to 10 times a month he and his unit drive out to make random visits of sex offender residences to confirm that they are still living at their listed addresses. The unit also checks on curfew violations and advises probation officers of their findings.

"We do these checks to make sure sex offenders are not committing any crimes, and we derive great satisfaction in doing something good for our community," said Byrne.

Once a New York City police officer and former U.S. Marine, Byrne has been a special investigator for the Port St. Lucie Police Sex Offender program for seven years.

Honor for the law runs in the family. His wife, Judy, is a member of the Victims Assistance unit for the Port St. Lucie police. Together they strive for proactive law enforcement.

Byrne reported that some of the offenders they check on have been convicted of computer-related sex crimes. They have advised parents to become active participants in their children's lives and to take precautions to assure that their kids do not become victims.

Vega believes the numbers show the success of the unit.

"In the 10 years the program has been in effect we have had only one reoffend," said Vega.


• Last year the unit made 1,600 house checks

• In the first four months of this year, the unit has made 700 house checks.

• There are 135 registered sex offenders living in Port St. Lucie

• Half are on probation; 133 are men and two are women.

..News Source.. by Larry Bailey

Address Verification Stats 2007 -v- 2008:
2007 approximately 1 visit per month per RSO.
2008 approximaetly 1.5 visits per month per RSO.

Necessary or harassment?
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