Amarillo, TX compliance check is a huge failure
Amarillo’s News Channel 10 (WFDA), a CBS facility, reported on a week-long sex offender compliance check. The story aired with the graphic below:
The graphic shows the operation was “successful in making arrests”. So the inference is that “success” is measured by the arrests made. Well if you read down in the story, they disclose that five agencies were involved in the operation; the Amarillo Police Department Special Victims Unit, the Amarillo Police Department PACE Unit, the Texas Department of Public Safety Criminal Investigations Division, the FBI, and the United States Marshals Service. That’s a lot of resources! They also disclose that 639 registrants were checked and 9 arrests were made.
Now I’m not a statistician, but 9 out of 639 is only 1.4%. If the benchmark for success in this operation is arrests, it sure seems like this operation was a total failure. By any measure, an investigation that occupies the resources of five law enforcement agencies for a week and targets hundred of individuals, yet only comes up with a handful of arrests, would be a total embarrassment.
Notably the story doesn’t disclose what the arrests were for. If the arrests were for kidnapping and they recovered 9 missing children, they can certainly claim success. If I were to guess; the arrests were not for new sexual offenses, but for technical violation of registration laws. Benign omissions that would not be illegal for anyone other than someone on the registry. Maybe News Channel 10 should share that information, which might then make this story and the operation look a little less silly? Otherwise, maybe News Channel 10 should spin the story in a more accurate direction by letting the citizens of Amarillo know that after significant police resources checked on them, it turns out 98.6% of the people on the registry are compliant!
The fact is the compliance statistics are not isolated to Amarillo. MOST people forced to register go on to live law abiding lives and very few re offend. If news stations highlighted the very high rate of compliance instead of fear-mongering, the public would not be so up-in-arms about a non-existent problem and those same police resources could have spent the week solving actual crimes?
Discover more from Florida Action Committee (FAC)
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Please post a link to the source story
Updated. Link is https://www.newschannel10.com/2025/08/19/amarillo-police-share-recent-findings-after-sex-offender-compliance-check-operation/
if they did as you suggest imagine how much actual work they would have to do to come up with actual news to report? so much simpler to broadcast salacious fear mongering propaganda that would make the national enquirer blush then it is to do their jobs.. May be worth noting that’s the same answer for the police involved in the “sting”.. so much simpler to get paid for playing pretend then actually doing police work..
No silly compliance check operation name this time?
After hearing the silly names out fascist government is giving to the concentration camps, I am reminded that many of these harassment sweeps were also given silly names like Candy Corn Compliance or Operation Chester.
Asking the media to do anything other than fear mongering is like asking them to give up all the money they make from advertisement. They know that in order to get more advertising money, they need to make more headlines. They can only do this by dividing the public, speading misinformation, fear mongering and putting forward titilating stories. That’s how they get paid, which is to say that they arent paid to report truth becuase truth is not newsworthy in their eyes.
Its really hard to forget what other people say about us when you read trash like this everyday. I sometimes have to take long breaks from FAC for mental health reasons. Just sayin..
I agree about needing to take breaks, but I do appreciate the work FAC is doing and the information they share with the group. Take your breaks Grown folks…we all need them sometimes.
Stopping just one sex offender is a success.
Stopping from what? The article doesn’t say anyone was sexually offending. These stories suggest that 9 people were caught molesting a kid, but the reality is these arrests are for registration violations and not sex crimes.
Fac
How come everybody is so fast to defend sex crimes against kids? All I hear is..Oh it’s for parole violation or something else. Let’s be honest here.,. They Do reofend and continue molesting.
There are no “sex crimes against kids” anywhere in this news report, so why are they even on your mind?
Nobody is defending sex crimes against kids. If any of the arrests were for a sex crime against a kid (or adult, or animal) they should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
On what basis do you make your very general statement of “they do reofend and continue molesting”? The stats show that the overwhelming majority DO NOT reoffend. In fact, the sexual re offense rate is in the single digits and the majority of arrests are for technical registration violations, which are so easy to catch with all the confusing and constantly changing rules.
Here are some stats of sexual reoffense from GOVERNMENT studies for your reference. Or better yet, if you want to deal with actual facts, contact the Amarillo PD or do a public information request for the crimes these 9 people were charged with. That way we won’t be dealing with speculation, but with real numbers.
Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), 2019—9-year follow-up of 2005 releases (30 states) – 7.7%
BJS, 2021—5-year follow-up of 2012 releases (34 states) – 4%
BJS, 2003—3-year follow-up of 1994 releases (15 states) – 3.5%
U.S. DOJ SMART Office (OJP), Sex Offender Management Assessment & Planning Initiative (SOMAPI) – “Federal evidence review summarizing large meta-analyses showing sexual reoffense rates generally in the single digits”
Minnesota Department of Corrections, 2007—statewide cohort – 3%
Washington State Department of Corrections, 2023—SOTAP outcome study – 1% of those who participated in a treatment program.
California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation (CDCR), 2025—Sex Offender Management Program (parole) – <3%
New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, 2007—early post-SORNA bulletin - <3%
The decades of actual research demonstrate that the offense rate is very low for sexual re-offense. The research dates back to the 1950’s and covers the gamut of institutions both governmental and academic. When considering sexual re-offense only and not failure to register violations, which are both non-violent and not breaches of public safety, the re-offense rate has been between 3%-9% consistently for decades. The registry has not moved the needle in prevention of sexual crime nor providing any additional public safety. So, Dr, I hope you’ve learned something today because now that you have the facts you’d only be spreading mis-information with your current position.
Congrats, Dr. you have not only drunk the kool-aid, but you’re marketing for them as well. Don’t try to think independently, and do actual research, they value your support too much.
DR.
If you are one of your family was affected by this by someone, I could understand you being upset, mad and angry at that person. However, you do not know any of us on here that I know of nor what we have done. Some just looked at photos of underaged images, some actually was dating someone underage.
All or most of us learned our lesson and have regrets for what we have done. For myself, my crime was almost 40 years ago and have no so much as had a speeding ticket since then. So please tell me how many re-offenses you have proof of that I or any other person you do not know is committing.
I bet the Yankees baseball team will win against the Miami Dolphins football team this year. That seems about as accurate as what you are saying. Made of thoughts and accusations have consequences. Again, I am very sorry if you or one of your loved ones was affected by a sex crime, but it is highly unlikely that it is one of us who are just trying to support our families and move on from the past.
As a last comment, anyone of us who are dumb enough to re-offend, deserves to be re-arrested. But most of us would only have that happen from what is called a registry violation which has nothing to do with re-offending. As simple as missing your registration by one day can get you arrested, which no other people in the U.S have to worry about except for registered citizens.
Please do not accuse everyone on the registry as being non-compliant because if we were all re-offending, I assure you, we would not be on here commenting, we would be in jail. A registry violation generally ends with a jail sentence or worse.
Have a great day.
John, when they don’t list what these six were arrested for it means there wasn’t any sexual offending. The most common reasons for arrest are unreported cars, boat trailers, email addresses. Why on earth people have to separately report vehicles when they are already registered with the DMV only illustrates the incompetence of both the law makers and those enforcing the laws. Imagine what we could’ve done with this amount of manpower stopping drug trafficking, dui’s, or any actual crime instead of chasing paper felonies and not making a dent in public safety at all.
John, name one case when the registry prevented a crime. I’ll wait
Mr. Anderson
Then why is there not more of an effort to prevent sex crimes. The statistics show time and again that the majority of sex crimes were committed by people who were not registrants. Why waste the taxpayer’s money on compliance checks? The compliance checks aren’t preventing anything.