Law enforcement completes annual Halloween check-in on sex offenders - News-Press Now

Annually on Halloween night in St. Joseph, the U.S. Marshals Office, the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Office and St. Joseph Police Department will check on the list of registered sex offenders in the area.

Buchanan County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Shawn Collie said these Halloween checks have occurred for at least 15 years.

“... There’s a lot of planning that will go into it days or weeks even prior to Halloween,” Collie said. “Trying to put together different teams, trying to verify the number of sex offenders — you know, who they are, where they are, and where they’re supposed to be Halloween night.”

For the actual operation, Collie said the teams were briefed at 5 pm and were out on the streets by 5:30 to 6 p.m. He said the checking lasted until 10:30 p.m.

He said random checks on sex offenders are also done throughout the year.

Collie said their list of registered sex offenders extends into Buchanan County, but the majority of them are within St. Joseph city limits. He said the number of registered sex offenders in Buchanan County is right around 300.

“Unfortunately, it changes day to day,” he said. “Depending on people being released from prison, maybe getting outta jail if they’re incarcerated, and then moving into the county and moving out of the county.”

Collie said they are making sure the sex offenders’ homes have their porch lights turned off and have a sign which says “no candy is being passed out.” He said they also are checking for other things, such as whether sex offenders are home, their other crimes and checking with their probation officer if they are on probation.

“Our hopes are that there are no violations,” Collie said.

For this operation, Buchanan County Sheriff Bill Puett said he usually will make the joke that they are Santa Claus and they should check their list twice, as they will often check a sex offenders’ home twice.

“Just because we’ve come by once doesn’t mean we’re not gonna come back by and make sure they’re still not compliant,” he said.

Deputy Marshal Joshua Kohler said the U.S. Marshals’ Office is the lead agency for investigating violations of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006. He said the Marshals will partner with other federal, state and local law enforcement jurisdiction to investigate possible violations of the act by registered sex offenders.

“Compliance operations like the one we’re doing tonight with Buchanan County and St. Joe PD just help us build relationships that we have with our local agencies in the area and help us ensure sex offenders are remaining complaint,” Kohler said.

Collie said a misunderstanding about registered sex offenders is that all charges involve a crime against a child. He said other charges applying to sex offenders can be forcible rape, assault or sexual assault and child pornography. He said another misunderstanding is that committing public urination registers someone as a sex offender.

All registered sex offenders in Missouri can be found on the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s website at https://www.mshp.dps.missouri.gov.

source: https://www.newspressnow.com/news/law-enforcement-completes-annual-halloween-check-in-on-sex-offenders/article_401d232a-3ab9-11ec-b3e2-3f3141c692ee.html

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