Shocking Hundreds Of Halloween Child Sex Offender Arrests Made Nationwide, Preventive Solutions Working

While many newspapers are talking about Halloween bans across America in schools, there are a large number of post-Halloween news stories related to the hundreds of child sex offender arrests that happened before or during Halloween.

On Halloween or in the week before, police task forces across the nation checked in on the homes of child sex offenders. Throughout America, police found sex offenders were near children, not registering with the sex offenders registry, violating their paroles, and welcoming children at their doors with candy or displaying Halloween decorations. In other areas, the checks helped authorities realize that their efforts to stop child sex offenders from acting on Halloween are working.

Often termed “Operation Boo,” “Operation Lights Out,” “Operation Safe Halloween,” “Operation Knock and Talk,” or “Operation Trick-or-Treat,” many police task forces made child sex offender arrests in a sweep before Halloween began.

In Arizona, the pre-emptive searches were explained by U.S. Marshal David Gonzales to be an effort to reduce the number of child sex offender victims. During the sweep, KVOA in Tucson said there were “approximately 55 arrests in the Phoenix, Tucson, Yuma and Flagstaff areas.” Some of these arrests were made for incidents outside of child sex offender crimes, such as not registering with parole officers.

About the roundup, Gonzales stated to KTVK AZ Family,

“Part of the operation is to ensure registered sex offenders are residing at their place of record. This phase continues Friday as law enforcement personnel team up with probation officers in Phoenix, Tucson and Yuma to conduct compliance checks intended to ensure that supervised sex offenders are complying with their terms of probation and are not participating in any Halloween activities.”

Other states conducted their own pre-emptive sweeps, including Michigan. There, WXYZ Detroit reports that over 100 homes were checked with 12 arrests made in two counties. According to Michigan laws, these arrests are for multiple legal reasons.

“They [the arrested sex offenders] are now facing charges ranging from failure to register, failure to verify address, failure to change address, living within 1000 feet of a school zone and failure to register internet profiles with the Michigan Sex Offender Registry. … Any offender who does not comply with the act faces four years in prison.”

In Wisconsin, police went to the homes of sex offenders before Halloween to remind them of the rules and check for violations under their Halloween Knock and Talk program. There are an estimated 5,000 sex offenders in Wisconsin and Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke is quoted by the Lacrosse Tribune as stating that they’re not soft on these sex offenders.

“So we go knock on the door and they better be home, they better answer the door. We make sure they don’t have decorations. If we were to go to a house and we have seen this, and they have Halloween decorations in the window, they get arrested.”

In a blatant defiance of local child sex offender laws, Fox 2 Now in St. Louis reported that a registered child sex offender was caught decorating his home and handing out candy to children near a school zone nearby in South Roxana, Illinois.

In Hamilton County, Tennessee, a sex offender was arrested for attending a trunk-or-treat event at a Chattanooga Church. The man was convicted for sexual battery of a child that was seven in 2007, and News Channel 9 ABC Chattanooga says he was charged on Halloween night for violating the sex offender registry.

For the third year in a row in Los Angeles County, over 60 Special Enforcement Officers started early on Halloween Day to investigate 60+ sex offenders to look for signs that they were breaking the law. The officers found sex offenders during that sweep that were living in homes where daycares were being operated and a sex offender living with a 10-year-old girl. SCV TV Santa Clarita said the police searched each home and were looking to see if the predators were complying with the law.

“[We checked if the] highest risk child predators are in compliance with their court orders ranging from no child porn, computers, phones, to candy or costumes in their homes used to entice children on a day famous for temptation.”

KFBK News Radio Sacramento states that in the state of California there were 62 sex offender arrests on Halloween.

The OC Register states that the police in Orange County appreciated the efforts of one sex offender that put a ‘do not disturb’ sign on his door to discourage trick-or-treaters. Despite this, the home was still searched. Over 100 sex offenders in Orange County are required to wear GPS monitoring anklets and none of them were arrested for violations during the Halloween sweep.

In addition to wearing GPS anklets, sex offenders in Orange County are required to attend a check-in event.

“[They are to] attend a parolee check-in and service center [on Halloween] … in Santa Ana were about 100 paroled homeless sex offenders who were required to go to the check-in point from 5 to 9 p.m. and were provided with dinner and a movie. … All paroled offenders were sent guidelines in early October about required Halloween night procedures that they signed and read back verbally to their parole agents. Another rule: Answer the door only for law enforcement.”

In Columbia, South Carolina, WIS TV states that sex offenders are told to comply with a curfew on Halloween. In Indianapolis, Indiana, the Indy Star reports the Sheriff’s Department statement.

“About 400 registered sex offenders in Marion County will be required to check in with probation officials during trick-or-treating hours Friday night from 6 to 9 p.m.”

Police in Lee County, Florida also have advice to keep sex offenders from being arrested, as stated to WVZN-HD Fort Meyers.

“Sex offenders were advised NOT to have Halloween decorations, to leave their lights off, and they could not participate in the events. These agencies came come together with an emphasis on ensuring children were safe while out ‘trick or treating’ between the hours of 5:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.”

All images and media in this article are from the referenced links with the exception of the first image, which is taken from the Strait Times for a case not related to sex offenders.