Police keeping sex offenders under surveillance for Halloween
Police Treat Registered Sex Offenders with Halloween Surprise
Baltimore County, Md. (October 26, 2009) – Baltimore County Police will be watching select registered sex offenders in Baltimore County this Halloween night to ensure that they are compliant with their probation requirement of “no contact” with children. This surveillance will be conducted at specific residences.
The Governor’s Office of Crime Control and Prevention awarded a grant to the Department’s Sexual Offender Registration Team to make sure that sexual offenders are in compliance with Maryland law. These offenders have been selected because they are forbidden to have any contact with children, other than their own.
Undercover Surveillance Officers will be Watching
The Sexual Offender Registration Team works closely with agents from the Division of Parole and Probation, and closely monitors offenders and their activities. These offenders have been advised not to participate in Halloween activities by doing some of the following things:
* not decorating the outside of their homes
* keeping their blinds and curtains shut with outside lights off
* not to answer the door to trick-or-treatersViolations of the “no contact” orders will cause Parole and Probation agents to violate the offender, sending them back to court and eventually back to jail.
Check Your Neighborhood
The public can see what sex offenders may live around them by going to the Sex Offender Compliance and Enforcement in Maryland web site at www.socem.info to search online. Another way citizens can learn about the locations of offenders in their neighborhoods is to call Maryland’s toll-free Sex Offender Alert Line at 1-866-559-8017. They can sign up for telephone notification any time a registered sex offender moves in their area.
The Alert Line will contact individual homes, schools, daycare centers, recreational centers and churches registered by zip code when a sex offender moves into the neighborhood, or if there is a change in the offender’s compliance status.
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PLEASE NOTE:
This rule only applies to offenders on probation or parole.
It does NOT apply to offenders who are NOT on probation or parole!
Therefore, registered sex offenders who are NOT on probation or parole are free to decorate their yard and give your kids a “surprise” when they ask “trick or treat”…and it ain’t a good surprise!
Comment by george — October 27, 2009 @ 9:42 pm