County Sex Offender Sweep
By: Julie Musgrave
Updated: September 16, 2009
For the past two days, several law enforcement agencies have been going 'door to door' to more than 300 homes making sure registered sex offenders are staying within the law.
321 registered sex offenders live in Lubbock County. For two days, sveral law enforcement agencies pulled together, going door to door for a sex offender sweep to check and verify those registered in the county are abiding by the law. A 2006 child protection and safety act made these kinds of checks routine for officers. At the time the law was instated, there were over half a million sex offenders living in the US. The whereabouts of 100,000 of those, were unknown. Lt. Neal Barron, LPD: "It's a very important thing to keep tabs on people that have been convicted of sex crimes. It's something that we as a society we just can't avoid, we have to do it." Officers check for each offender's address, driver's license, employer, vehicle, even e-mail address information. During this week's raid, officers made 10 arrests. Several of those possibly facing more severe charges. But overall, Lieutenant Barron calls this week's sweep a success. Lt. Neal Barron: "It's not something that we want to announce, that we do it twice a year, three times a year, four times a year. It's coming, that's all I can say."
