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Sheriff urges families to check sex offender registry before trick-or-treating

Posted at 2:08 PM, Oct 24, 2017
and last updated 2017-10-25 00:27:46-04

ROCK SPRINGS, Wyoming – Sweetwater County Sheriff Mike Lowell is encouraging families to use a program called OffenderWatch, to avoid the homes of registered sex offenders this Halloween.

Lowell highlighted that it is important for families to know where their kids are trick-or-treating, and which houses they should avoid.

Oftentimes older children trick-or-treat alone in small groups, and can easily fall prey to sex offenders.  Halloween is meant to be fun, but it is important for parents to feel that their children are safe.

Lowell said there are about 100 registered sex offenders in Sweetwater County; most (but by no means all) live in Rock Springs and Green River.

“The benefit of registering for this free confidential email alert service is that it allows the system to monitor your important addresses for you, thereby keeping you up to date of newly registered offenders and making it unnecessary for you to have to check your important addresses daily or even weekly,” Lowell said.

Parents in Utah can also check the for registered sex offenders on the Utah Department of Corrections website here.