Operation Watchful Eye arrests 1 sex offender in Rabun County

Thanks to a statewide initiative involving Georgia’s sheriffs, one sex offender who violated their probation was arrested by the Rabun County Sheriff’s Office.

The initiative, enforced by the Georgia Sheriff’s Association including RCSO, is called “Watchful Eye.” The yearly operation is enforced by sheriff’s departments across the state who do compliance checks on registered sex offenders in their respective counties, making sure none have violated their terms or state registration laws.

The RCSO is mandated by law to register sex offenders and to keep the public informed of where registered sex offenders reside, work and attend school. Throughout the year, the sheriff’s office verifies addresses provided by the registered sex offenders. While conducting residence verifications, deputies also assure additional registration requirements are being adhered to.

The Rabun County Sheriff’s Office participated in this operation checking all 28 registered sex offenders residing in Rabun County. Of the 28 offenders all of them were accounted for with only one not being in compliance with their probation terms.

“This operation was successful not only in our county but across the entire state as the Georgia Sheriffs worked together to ensure our particular counties are safe. To stay up to date on all of our sex offenders I would encourage all of our citizens to please take advantage of our Offender Watch program that can be found on our websiterabunsheriff.org,” said Rabun County Sheriff Chad Nichols.

You can visit rabunsheriff.org or visit the http://gbi.georgia.gov/georgia-sex-offender-registry for more information on the whereabouts of registered sex offenders in your community.

Statewide, during the eight-day operation, 6,200 residence verifications were conducted, 35 new warrants were issued for violations of the sex offender registry law, 82 new sex offenders moved into the reporting counties, 13 warrants were issued for new sex offenses, 69 warrants issued for residency violations of the sex offender registry, and 46 warrants issued for other miscellaneous new charges.

According to the Georgia Sheriff’s Association, it was discovered that 384 sex offenders had absconded from their last known address which will require the sheriff to work with other supporting agencies and track these individuals down.