President Trump promised to put law and order back at the center of the federal government, and his Justice Department just delivered a nationwide Halloween warning to sex offenders who thought registration rules were optional.
The U.S. Marshals Service announced 197 arrests from Operation Trick or Treat 4, a month-long enforcement sweep built to protect children and families during one of the busiest nights of the year.
This was not a symbolic press conference or a stack of paperwork. Officers went door to door, checked thousands of registered addresses and found hundreds of offenders who were not where they claimed to be.
The scope was enormous.
The U.S. Marshals Service reported that more than 127 law-enforcement agencies joined the operation across 77 counties in 27 states. Together, they conducted 4,183 compliance checks at the registered addresses of convicted sex offenders.
Those checks exposed 316 offenders who were not complying with registration requirements, including people who were not living at the addresses they had reported. Officers also uncovered probation and parole violations, along with violations of special Halloween restrictions.
The 197 arrests included 114 sex offenders accused of failing to register and 57 sex offenders arrested for other offenses. Another 26 people were arrested for various criminal activity uncovered during the operation.
And the Marshals made clear that the work was not finished. Enforcement continued through Halloween in certain communities, while deputy marshals opened federal failure-to-register investigations tied to what officers found during the address checks.
That matters because a sex-offender registry is only as useful as the truth inside it.
If a convicted offender lies about where he lives, disappears from supervision or ignores restrictions designed to keep children safe, the public is left operating on false information.
A registry built on fake addresses cannot protect families who have every right to know who is living near them.
The Marshals put the stakes in human terms with another announcement on the same day as the Halloween sweep: task-force officers captured a man accused of kidnapping a 10-year-old girl.
Congress gave the Marshals this authority years ago. President Trump’s Justice Department is using it the way Americans expect: find offenders, enforce the law and back up state and local police.
The U.S. Marshals Service sex-offender mission fact sheet explains that the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act authorizes the agency to help locate and apprehend non-compliant and fugitive sex offenders. It also gives the Marshals responsibility for investigating federal registration violations and helping identify offenders displaced by major disasters.
Fugitives cross county and state lines. Local agencies can flag a disappearance, while the Marshals bring federal investigators, task-force partners and interstate reach to the hunt.
Operation Trick or Treat 4 put that system into action across 37 federal judicial districts, from California and Hawaii to Florida, Maine and Virginia. It paired the Marshals’ national reach with local officers who know the neighborhoods, addresses and people involved.
The operation went far beyond a large arrest total. Thousands of real-world checks forced convicted offenders to prove they were obeying the conditions imposed on them.
The danger does not disappear when a local jail opens the door.
Homeland Security issued a same-day wanted notice for an alleged MS-13 member it said had been arrested for attempted murder, released, and then accused of raping a 13-year-old girl before being released a second time.
The rape allegation has not been proven in court. Two releases followed by an accusation involving a child show why federal fugitive enforcement matters.
When someone accused of serious sexual offenses or ordered to remain on a registry disappears, law enforcement has a duty to find him before another family pays the price.
U.S. Marshals Service Director Gadyaces S. Serralta credited the deputies and partner agencies that carried out the operation and emphasized that the mission to hunt fugitive sex offenders never stops.
That is the right message for Halloween and every other day of the year.
Parents should not have to wonder whether the offender registry in their neighborhood is accurate. Convicted sex offenders should not get to decide which court orders they feel like obeying.
Nearly 200 arrests and 316 discovered violations prove what happens when the federal government quits making excuses and starts checking the doors.
This is a Guest Post from our friends over at 100 Percent Fed Up. View the original article here.
Continue reading...
[ H/T WLT Report ]
