We have received a spike in comments and contacts from people who have had address verifications, many of which involving multiple jurisdictions over the last two weeks. We suspected it was part of one of these “operations” taking place in certain counties, such as Brevard, Bay and others. You know the ones… Its where they round up a bunch of people, mostly on petty technical violations, and then put out press releases such as the one in Bay County where they announce “Operation Watchdog” arrests 37 people in sex offender sting.
Only these are not, for the most part, new sex offenses. These are mostly technical violations, such as not registering a broken down trailer in a backyard. And for the 29 people who were arrested for a technical violation, such as not registering a trailer, they (as you can see from the below press conference) want “Take this element out of our communities”
Oh and naturally this is a “joint operation” between local, police, the FDLE, the US Marshals, Department of Homeland Security…
In the media it’s called “click bait”, in this case it’s Federal Grant bait.
Compliance op finds NO reoffending, ‘protects public’:
http://1057news.com/2021/07/15/13/45/33/u-s-marshals-join-cumberland-co-law-enforcement-in-sex-offender-compliance-operation/
To be perfectly clear, I have no sympathy for those who were arrested for “real” sex crimes, particularly if they were registered. Those were just slow learners, and probably need to have the lesson reinforced.
However, this was a typical public relations operation. We must remember that police and prosecutors don’t get “promotion points” for actually stopping crime. They get credit for making arrests and obtaining convictions. Indeed, if the crime rate went to zero, they would be out of their jobs.
The briefing began with the naming of seven agencies involved to make sure that these can include “Operation Watchdog” in the departmental resumes at funding time. A quick look at the numbers is revealing. Of the 38 total arrests, 6 were arrested for traveling, 3 for possession of child pornography, and 29 for technical registry violations. Only one of the travelers was registered, incidentally for the same crime. He’s one of the slow learners. In addition to the 6 traveler arrests, the 3 possession arrests were likely due to what the briefer referred to as the “online operation.”
That leaves the 29 violations of registry laws—although one of those may have been a probation violation. Twenty-nine is 7.25% of the 400 registrants in the area. The lone traveler who was a registrant represents 0.25% of all area registrants. Of the 38 arrests, 9 were for real sex crimes, which is 2.6%.
Note that all 9 real crime arrests could have been obtained without a sweep of registered SOs!! However that would not provide the desired effect of vilifying registrants, nor could it justify the manpower. Since those 9 real crimes were detected through the online portion, they needed to pad the operation with technical violations to obtain the desired public relations benefit. If I am being too cynical or am misinterpreting the data, please let me know.
Veritas.
Sorry 2.6% should have been 23.7%. Rounding error and typo.
As Justice Holmes would say, “men must turn square corners when dealing with the government”. Rock Island v U.S., 254 US 141 (1920). Justice Holmes made it clear that you can’t trust anyone in government 100 years ago. Timeless advice.
Sc:
You are under no obligation to answer your door if the police don’t have a warrant. The state places a duty on the police to do compliance checks but you have no corresponding duty to cooperate.
The same for registration forms. You are not required, nor can they force you to sign a registration form. The only thing they can do if you refuse to sign is write refused to sign on the form.
I worked for the military police and for a civilian police force prior to any of these registration laws being in effect. We asked people to sign miranda waivers and about 1/2 refused. It was no sweat off of our ass, we just wrote refused to sign and just moved on.
Florida has many defense contracts so it is important for the security of out country that military contractors in Florida who have intimate knowledge of defense systems can be framed for CP. If they ever get out of prison they will be released in Florida and arrested again.
Sc:
You are under no obligation to answer their questions. Your best bet is to keep your mouth shut. If you don’t have the money to fight them, show your ID through a window but don’t ever open your door to them unless you are on probation or parole.
Very good advice!
Another question comes to mind… Was this “operation” carried out like those previously? County matters not, or does it? I am under the presumption that they have similar methods.
Hmm…. IS there a proper way to carry these out? Something to the effect of being read the Miranda Rights before asking you any questions?
SC: Miranda only comes into play after arrest. LE can ask anyone questions all day long, whether by knocking on doors (as validated in Florida v. Jardines) or through what’s known as a Terry stop, after the SCOTUS case in the 1960s.
@ AJ / Detroit
Oh. I’m aware that I am under no obligation to do anything more than show them my DL. I’m under no “official” supervision nor do I ever provide info not required. I appreciate the responses…
I was hoping for some type of clarification like… Do they travel in groups and show up at your doorstep at dinner? Do they have a warrant to search the home area, etc. That sort of thing.
AJ
I use to work in Law enforcement, a Terry Stop can only be applied when the officer has a resonable suspicion that a person has committed a crime. For example, a lady stops an officer and tells him that the guy in the green shirt has a gun.
Even though the officer did not see the gun, he / she now has the right to stop the person and detain them for a reasonable amount of time based on the suspicion given by a citizen.
This BS is another reason the registry IS in fact punisment. We are under LIFETIME suspicion since all of us apparently are taking turns plundering the cities looking for new victims, like a blood thirsty vampire.
AND don’t even get me started on officers lying to cover their ass. One of the many reasons I left. I got tired of looking the other way while homeless people got their brains bashed in for nothing.
There are in fact some real decent police officers and I met some both while being one myself and a few that stopped me while be a registrant. A few I will never forget for their kindness, and a few more I never forget for being detained for hours at a time just to mess with me, hoping they can cause me to lose my temper and get slammed the ground.
Usually asking for a “Watch Commander” causes them to crap themselves and let you go. Especially in larger agencies. The smaller departments seem to get away with more harassment, because the chief is the Father of the Captain, whose daughter is a dispacther and her boyfriend is a detective.
So time and time again, the courts, judges and legislators have ruled or claimed the registry is “Civil” and therefor NOT punishment. Give me an example of ANY of civil violation that can send you to prison for possibly life.
A registry violation, especially a simple mistake, hurts NO one. There is NO victim. And yet, we could face a long stay in the pokey for a mistake on our car registration that may not have even been our fault.
Why haven’t we won some court battles in those areas? I am telling you straight up, the cases we keep bringing is causing them to go after us. I am for sure NOT saying to stop them, just that I believe it it retribution due to the fact we are starting to win some victories.
At the rate they are doing stings, there won’t be any of us left to fight the registry.
I agree that perpetuating an adversarial relationship with LE can be seen as a losing battle as they have more legal weapons and tripwires in their arsenal, and we have apparently very little sympathy that keeps our cases from being the slam dunks in the courts that they logically should be.
How we change this, I don’t know. It almost seems a cultural phenomena unique to Florida where this kind of foolishness takes place. The corruption and misinformation being spewed by authorities and then regurgitated by an eager media is beyond comprehension by those of us who live relatively peaceful lives in other states where this doesn’t routinely take place.
This is happening in Marion county Florida as well. I was arrested for a not registered utility trailler and a mess up on my vehicle tag registration. The trailer as not been used in over ten years. It never was titled or registered for plates. The car was a pure mistake, which I went to the sheriff’s station to try to explain and explain and make it right. Ended up arrested they didn’t want to here anything. Best off they already had all the right info and tried to get me to lie and catch me at it. This seems like entrapment to me. The sheriff has more info available to them and they already know what we own in vehicles. How is this keeping the public safe? It is all about money and making them look needed to keep us on a leash.
@Al: As long as your trailer is listed in your registration, you’re fine. Just make sure it’s listed. Even if it doesn’t have a plate.
a man from Dothan, is being charged with traveling to meet a minor for a sexual act, solicitation of a minor for sexual act, use of two-way communications device, and distributing obscene material to a minor. Good old Florida pushing these charges again. The new administration must be cutting funds so they are now going to increase their stings and anything else they can trap a person with. Yes definitely Federal Grant bait.
Someone came to my door while I was in the shower. I looked at video footage. He wouldn’t look directly at the camera. Even though the camera works 24 / 7, I wouldn’t know to check it unless someone presses the doorbell as that is how I get an alert. He pushed the bell.
Of course I can pour through hours of video footage but that is exhausting. He did not come back and did not leave any card so good ridence. Must not have been that important.
This operation targeted Bay County only. It doesn’t explain the Brevard and other(?) county activities.
correct – this was just one county’s press release.
My bet is, there will be more…they have to justify their jobs and do so with these laws and operations.
We’re somewhat new to this so I was wondering if someone could clarify something for us. When you say trailer, what type of trailer do you mean? We know someone who was a utility trailer that attaches to the hitch of their truck and they were told they did not need to register it since it can’t be driven alone. Just wanted to see if anyone else had knowledge on this.
@Bee: If it needs a plate, it needs to be registered. Don’t take ANY chances. Both work vehicles are registered, and it’s not even my business. One of the terms law enforcement uses is “vessel”, to which they mean boat and/or trailer. Not just boat trailer, but utility trailer as well. If it attaches to your vehicle or it’s something you drive, put it on the list.
So, out of these 38 arrests, 24 were foe FTR, mainly due to failing to update social media info. Only 11 were real crimes and 3 supervision violations.
[sarcasm] I’m sure society feels oh so much safer now thatthe Bay County Sheriff’s Office, The US Marshals Service, Homeland Security Investigations, the Panama City Police Department. Lynn Haven Police Department, Panama City Beach Police Department, and Florida Department of Law Enforcement has protected us from people setting up social media and owning trailers. [/sarcasm]
What a waste of money and resources during this pandemic.
29, I think
@Derek Logue: This reminds me of a multi agency drug task force sweep in the late 80’s along Fisheating Creek in Venus, Florida. The local sheriff and other agencies announced they were going to comb the shores of the creek for miles looking for pot plants. After spending millions, they found one plant. They immediately tried to downplay the search, but a local Lake Placid paper picked it up and even won some award for the reporting. This is what happens when law enforcement needs to justify next year’s budget increase and they have nothing better to do because crime is actually down. Closing jails and prisons is just bad politics because it’s losing jobs, even if the jobs aren’t actually needed. Tale as old as time.
Personally, I wonder what this county’s record is on other types of crime look like. As in, how many unsolved murders and robberies? Gang and drug activity? Have they cleaned all that up so well that they can dedicate so much time and resources to find out whether or not their registry population forgot to register their father’s sister’s cousin’s brother’s neighbor’s former roommate’s ex-girlfriend’s BFF’s mom’s other son’s bike left in the yard 3 years ago?
How the heck is the legal? Why is a certain group of people being targeted without reasonable suspicion warrantlessly. This is double jeopardy it’s entrapment, due process violations, freedom of speech amendment violations. So they make up some frivolous law linked to your past crime which attaches to your vessel for life in which you are prompted to act against your will at a certain time and place you don’t want to be mirroring probation, paying fees to register and fuel to transport and the opportunity cost of driving 30 minutes each way and sitting for hours where your then your forced to speak, forced to self incriminate, forced to be compentant enough to double check what the registering sheriff is entering then they investigate you based on that information, then them self make amenable mistakes on the arresting documents but we can’t have a laps of judgement, we can’t be human and can’t over site or rest without fear of prosecution for not surrendering your free will and doing what your forced to do and say. There is not opting out. This is no different than probation you have to answer everything truthfully then they check on what you told them. Then to top it all off they use the charge that created the new arbitrary law you just violated to enhance the punishment for violating that law, sanction, punishment, collateral consequences prompting. I don’t think it’s anything more than retribution. But it’s a third degree felon which doesn’t even score out to jail on first offense but using your prior on the score sheet your going to jail or prison if you don’t surrender your freedom with a few years probation, monitor, attorney and court fees and FDOC fees and the laws aren’t even based on probability only unsubstantiated “absolutions” that you are a danger of some sort. That’s what they are telling the public. By us going down there and giving the info is us proving by compelled speech we must be in fact some kinda danger to them or why would we do it?
The only kids I see in danger is the ones who’s dads are put in jail who’s going todo without because of these cost and dad not being there to protect their household. By mom having to come up with the ends to put food on the table, pay the rent and light bills. The only adults I see in danger is the dad going to jails fir sleeping with a minor when he was 20 and is now 50 and is looked up during a phone call by another inmate in the same dorm and sees “sex offender”. This is real facts. That dude not registering a tag
This is for FAC eyes only as this information may assist in current or future litigation, or… Post if you like 😁*
Could we use the fact that certain counties are making it a point to conduct compliance checks, the frequency, the funding for, etc… where others are not be used against them? Meaning, it’s being used as a political gain where it’s demonstrated by research and facts that no new crimes are being committed/discovered by these “operations?” Therefore showing the levels of harassment by the local law enforcement…
Just a thought.
These organizations are gunning after the wrong people (for the most part) but isn’t that why counties like Brevard keep there ordinances “vague” in order to do things like this?
They should be ashamed!!
DHS & USMS want to “take this element out of our communities”?
That makes no sense.
FAC Legal, if they are this explicit about their motivation for enforcing compliance — to “take this element out of our communities”— is that useful evidence in ex post facto +?
This is why certain parties don’t want monies going to the people in the form of healthcare, food, housing the homeless, and proper education: they’d rather use it to sew discord among the proles and build a local military style police force. YOU can’t suck off the government’s teat because WE are.
Are these types of harassing operations happening anywhere outside of Florida on a regular basis?
Yes, mostly in smaller counties.