MIAMI COUNTY — Law enforcement from across Miami County working to give people a bit of peace of mind about keeping kids safe ahead of Halloween.
The Miami County Sheriff’s Office conducted a sex offender address verification sweep on all registered sex offenders in the county Tuesday.
This is the 8th consecutive year they’ve held this county wide verification. The sweep was conducted in collaboration with 27 law enforcement officials from across the county as well as the U.S. Marshal’s Service.
There are 158 registered offenders in Miami County and 121 addresses were verified with the other 37 needing to be followed up to confirm the offender lives at the registered address.
Miami County Sheriff Dave Duchak said on average there are 3 to 6 registration violations that are looked into from this detail.
The annual sweep is held before Halloween and Trick or Treating for a reason.
“I think that it reinforces to the community that law enforcement is out there, we are watching, we are making sure that these offenders are registered and are living where they’re supposed to be,” Duchak said.
“We hope that offers a little bit more peace of mind.”
Duchak said since they’ve stepped up enforcement, including this annual check, the number of registered sex offenders in the county has decreased compared to eight years ago.
There was one arrest made Tuesday for an unrelated outstanding warrant, as well as another arrest for possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia.
For further information or questions about the SORN program or today’s operation, please call the Miami County Sheriff’s Office SORN Division at (937)335-8343 and ask for Carol Foster.