Smith County Check Up on Sex Offenders

SMITH COUNTY — The Smith County Sheriff’s Office has completed a sex offender residence compliance check. On Friday, Investigator JeriLynn Scott told KTBB, “there are 404 sex offenders that are registered in Smith County. Of the 404 individuals investigated Wednesday and Thursday; 399 were in compliance, 4 received a door hanger and 1 was found to be out of compliance.” Scott continued, “the verification checks are unannounced and are important because the more offenders know that they are being watched, there is less of a chance of them having a new victim.”

The checks included approximately 30 officers, including members of different local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, coordinated with the U.S. Marshals Service Joint East Texas Fugitive Task Force. “Verification checks send a message to all sex offenders that they will be arrested if they are out of compliance with their sex offender registration requirements,” said Smith County Sheriff Larry Smith. “An offender has strict requirements. If they violate any of their sex offender registration requirements, a warrant will be issued for their arrest.” According to Sheriff Smith, “It took two days to conduct this verification check, but it took a lot of hours of planning and coordination to make it happen. Having the right people and the right number of people assigned to this effort was key and I am grateful to each one of them for their hard work.”