By Staff
NILES - Michigan State Police troopers and officers from the cities of Niles, Buchanan, Berrien Springs, Dowagiac, Edwardsburg, Cassopolis and the Cass and Berrien County Sheriff's Departments concluded a three-week sweep of convicted sex offenders in Berrien and Cass Counties as part of Operation Verify, a statewide initiative to increase compliance with the state's sex offender law.
Officers targeted individuals who failed to change or verify their address during the October verification period, which ran until Oct. 15.
A total of 15 arrest warrants were obtained and three arrests were made by the end of the sweep. Various charges included misdemeanor offense for failure to verify and one felony charge of failure to change address.
Public Act 295 of 1994, known as the “Sex Offenders Registration Act,” requires offenders convicted of a misdemeanor listed offense to report to a local law enforcement agency to verify their address yearly, and must be done Jan. 1 through Jan, 15. Failure to do so is a 93-day misdemeanor. Offenders convicted of a felony listed offense must report to a local law enforcement agency to verify their address quarterly during the first 15 days of January, April, July and October. Failure to do so is also a 93-day misdemeanor.
Convicted offenders must also report a change of address within 10 days of moving and failure to do so is a four-year felony.
As of Nov. 1, there were 37,916 offenders statewide in the Sex Offender Registry. Of those, 23,885 are required to verify their address either yearly or quarterly depending on the offense. There are 283 registered sex offenders in the Niles Postal area.
As part of the Operation Verify, random residence checks were conducted on 141 homes by troopers and officers from local departments. “We found that 74 percent of registrants were in compliance, with some located in prison or jail and some unaccounted for,” stated Trooper Duwayne Robinson, from the Niles Post. Warrants are being requested for 15 other sex offenders for various violations.
The Niles Police Department and Buchanan Police Department checked 100 percent of the registered sex offenders in their cities.
The Niles Police Department officers found that 90 percent of registered sex offenders residing in their city were in compliance.
Michigan' Public Sex Offender Registry can be viewed at http://www.mipsor.state.mi.us.