ATLANTA — Thanks to an initiative involving Georgia’s sheriffs, 38 sex offenders were arrested across the state from Sept. 13-21 for violations of state registration laws. In 2015, the first coordinated effort across the state was launched to conduct residence verifications and compliance checks of registered sex offenders during a specific time period. The coordinated initiative became known as Operation Watchful Eye. Due to the overwhelming success of the original initiative, Georgia’s sheriffs have made this an annual operation and recently conducted Operation Watchful Eye III.
The Office of Sheriff is mandated by law to register sex offenders, and to keep the public informed of where registered sex offenders reside, work, and attend school. Throughout the year, each sheriff’s office verifies addresses provided by registered sex offenders. While conducting residence verifications, deputies also assure additional registration requirements are being adhered to.
The purpose of this statewide effort is to create awareness that sheriffs’ offices work collectively, network, and actively engage their office by participating in statewide verification checks and other non-compliant matters, in order to make our state safer. In numerous counties deputy sheriffs, U.S. Marshals, U.S. Probation officers and Department of Community Supervision probation/parole officers worked together to verify sex offenders are in compliance with the law. Preliminary reporting by 65 sheriffs’ offices reveals a total of 10,601 registered sex offenders, 214 predators and 301 homeless sex offenders are currently living in their counties During the eight-day operation, 6,200 residence verifications were conducted, 35 new warrants were issued for violations of the sex offender registry law, 82 new sex offenders moved into the reporting counties, 13 warrants were issued for new sex offenses, 69 warrants issued for residency violations of the sex offender registry, and 46 warrants issued for other miscellaneous new charges. More importantly, it was discovered that 384 sex offenders had absconded from their last known address which will require the sheriff to work with other supporting agencies and track these individuals down.
Remember, for the protection of your family and neighbors, visit your local sheriff’s office website or visit the http://gbi.georgia.gov/georgia-sex-offender-registry for more information on the whereabouts of registered sex offenders in your community.