SALT LAKE CITY — Children across the Beehive State will put on their costumes and head out in search of candy Tuesday night on Halloween.
It's a holiday Francine Peterson and her children have always looked forward to.
"With all the five kids in the house growing up, it's just everybody's excited about dressing up and there's always activities to go to.
Peterson had lived in St. George for 12 years. She says two of her children will be trick-or-treating Tuesday night.
"It's supposed to be a fun night where kids can go out and get candy and dress up and have fun," she said.
With that, Peterson says, comes some caution.
"There's two that I know," she said.
Peterson is referring to two registered sex offenders who live in the same residence on her street.
She says altogether, she's found that 10 sex offenders live in eight locations within a half mile of her.
"I started looking up sex offender laws more when my kids got a little bit more mobile and so we stay on top of it," said Peterson.
FOX 13 News spoke with Glen Mills, the director of communications and government relations for the Utah Department of Corrections. He confirmed that Utah has no specific Halloween sex offender laws. However, he says the Department of Corrections lays out plenty of instructions ahead of Halloween.
"Sex offenders are notified, and they know that they are not supposed to be inviting in any way on Halloween night, their lights are supposed to be off, if anyone does come up and knock or, you know, come trick or treating, they're not supposed to answer," said Mills.
He says the Department of Corrections treats the entire month of October with heightened awareness.
"Really making sure that we're making compliance checks and making sure that the sex offender registry is something that parents can turn to on this night," said Mills.
He explained to FOX 13 News just how the registry works.
"The registry is going to prepare you or provide you with some really important information and that is one the names and aliases of offenders, it's going to provide the address so that you can see where they live, but it also has a description and a picture on there as well," he said.
It's information, Mills says, is important for parents to have before they take their child out trick-or-treating.
"We'll go trick-or-treating like normal, but like I said, we'll be with the kids. Our kids have pointed out to their friends like, 'Hey, just don't go there,'" Peterson said.
Peterson says she actually spoke to the Department of Corrections Monday morning to see if they could correct the address of the sex offenders on her street before Halloween.
Mills says the Department of Corrections will have more resources on-call and available Halloween night, if needed. He says any non-emergency issues with the sex offender registry can be reported to this number: 801-495-7700.
You can view the Utah Department of Corrections sex offender registry HERE.
