Jasper County Kicks Off 3-Day Sex Predator Operation
By: Katie Love
Updated: May 1, 2012
JASPER COUNTY, MO -- Would you know if a sex offender lived in your neighborhood?
A three-day sting in Jasper County is making sure 295 sex offenders are properly registered.
"I just called my husband I'm ready to pack up and move," neighbor Misty Kelso says.
Misty Kelso had no idea she lived across the street from a sex offender.
With two small children, Kelso thinks making sure sex offenders are registered is crucial.
"I know you can get online and look and see where they live at and it's good to know and try to protect your kids," Kelso says.
Seven teams of two officers started compliance checks in Jasper County.
The task force is made up of officers from eight counties.
"It's a matter of safety for our children and the citizens of Jasper County to make sure they are compliant and to make sure no one's running around who's not registered," Jasper County Captain Kelly Stephens says.
The goal of the operation is to make sure sex offenders registered a current living address, place of employment, and are not living within a certain distance of a school building.
"We don't want them to have any opportunity to be a predator on any of our children," Stephens says.
Deputies also checked some computers for child pornography.
Officers seized a computer from one offender in Joplin who had victimized a 5-year-old girl.
"Child sex crimes statistics show they typically will re-offend," Matt Walker, Jasper County Sheriff's Office Operations Commander says. "It obviously raises suspicions or concerns and makes us want to look further into the situation."
A federal grant for the child sex predator prevent program allowed the taskforce to purchase software that checks for child pornography.
It also provided GPS systems to cut down on the time it takes to locate an offender.
This was just day one of the operation.
Officers have two more days of compliance checks.
