OffenderWatch Helps Florida Deputies & US Marshals Service Arrest 58 Noncompliant Sexual Offenders

Nov 19, 2020 | Success Story

man in jail
The Osceola County (Florida) Sheriff’s Office, US Marshals Service (USMS), and Florida Department of Law Enforcement conducted a joint operation, culminating in the arrest of 58 noncompliant sexual predators and offenders. For the operation, the agencies relied heavily on using OffenderWatch to search historical records, develop intelligence leads, and track offender movements. The historical notes and documents in OffenderWatch collectively helped the agencies involved to develop a plan that successfully resulted in multiple apprehensions. Known as “Operation 2020 Vision,” the operation ran from March until the end of August of 2020. 

“The mission of Operation 2020 Vision was to attempt to identify new unregistered sex offenders as well as unreported vehicles, cellular phones and non-compliant transient offenders,” Positively Osceola reported. Out of the 58 arrests, the operation resulted in: 77 felony charges for failure to register and violation of sexual offender probation and one case which violated the Adam Walsh Act (18 USC 2250(a) requirement to register after crossing state lines. 

According to Det. Michelle Keefer of the Osceola Sheriff’s Dept., “We use OffenderWatch every day. It contains a wealth of information that allows us to more effectively and efficiently do our jobs. There are only two of us who track offenders, and we couldn’t do without [OffenderWatch].”   

OffenderWatch provides a level of detail many times not found through the state’s registry system.  “OffenderWatch is our primary tool,” Keefer said. “We’re already planning operations for 2021 and will be using it. We couldn’t do [our work] without it.”