Natural disasters like wildfires, hurricanes, flash floods, earthquakes and tornadoes can strike at any moment, anywhere. Communities that are predisposed to certain disasters should have a plan in place to help be prepared for “the big one.” For law enforcement, preparation not only means thinking about duties as first responders, but also considering how their agency will monitor and manage registered sex offenders in their jurisdiction.For Det. Jason Miller of the Butte County Sheriff’s Office in Oroville, CA, his preparation proved extremely useful during the tragic Camp Fire wildfire. In November 2018, a wildfire started in Butte County burning more than 150,000 acres of land over two weeks. The fires took the lives of at least 85 people and destroyed more than 18,000 buildings.Paradise, CA, was one town that was hit the hardest during the disaster. Once news of the fires hit, Det. Miller and the Sheriff’s Office sprung into action, immediately assisting the Paradise Police Department in its response. Det. Miller knew Paradise needed to contact registered sex offenders in and around the city.

“Using the OffenderWatch program, we track [sex offenders] better. We know where they’re at and they know that we’re coming to check on them,” Det. Miller said.

He and the other Sex Offender Registry team members check on all registered sex offenders in their counties at least once per year to ensure they are living at the same address and adhering to the law. “They know we’re always looking out,” he said.After the Camp Fire, Det. Miller used OffenderWatch to create geofences and locate all the “290s” (sex offenders registered in California) affected by the fire. Butte County is about 1,600 square miles, so they set up the county into zones to split up and tackle. It took about one week to account for all offenders. “Most offenders reached out to us to let us know where they were at. They realize that we’re serious about keeping tabs on them,” he said.Det. Miller shares these tips for law enforcement agencies when managing sex offenders during a natural disaster:

1. Reach out to surrounding agencies for help.
2. Cross reference lists from non-governmental organizations to check for your offenders. Have they checked into shelters? Are they on a Red Cross list? Have they signed up with FEMA? Do they have new phone number or address?
3. Segment your area into zones and use the geo-location feature to map. Set up the zones and geofencing so you have an idea of what offenders you’re looking for in that particular area.

At the end of October 2019, the Lea County Sheriff’s Office in New Mexico decided to check that its registered sex offenders still lived at the addresses where they had registered. The office’s Sex Offender Registration and Tracking Unit prepped for “Operation Scat Cat,” checking and verifying addresses for 134 offenders in their jurisdiction.Vivian Martinez has been working at the Sheriff’s Office for 17 years and managing sex offenders for 8½ years.“OffenderWatch makes it really easy to organize the offenders in different parts of the county,” said Vivian Martinez of the Lea County Sheriff’s Office NM Sex Offender Registration and Tracking Unit. “We used OffenderWatch for mapping the sex offenders, doing searches on different towns in Lea County to find where they were located. The mapping systems is really helpful when you’re preparing for an operation.”Vivian Martinez has been using the OffenderWatch platform for years. “I was impressed by how OffenderWatch was able to add or remove from the system, so it was more user-friendly and easier to enter data,” she says. “Data entry is quick and easy if you have all the information you need.”During the operation, the office made two arrests (active outstanding warrant for failure to appear and failure to report a new address).

The OffenderWatch Network helped investigators in the Wakulla County Sheriff’s Office, Florida, arrest a registered sex offender who was actively trying to reoffend and create child pornography. According to anarticle on WTXL-TV,Dwayne Creery, a registered sex offender, was “arrested in Wakulla County after deputies discovered he was using multiple Facebook accounts to look for juveniles to be actors in homemade pornographic videos.”“Without the assistance of OffenderWatch serving as an information hub, encouraging the collaboration of multiple state and federal agencies to track and apprehend this absconded sex offender, Dwayne Creery would not have been apprehended in such an efficient and timely manner,” said Detective Brett Surace of the Wakulla County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Division.Here’s Det. Surace’s record of how their investigation led to Creery’s arrest:On September 10, 2018, the Wakulla County (Florida) Sheriff’s Office (SO) Criminal Investigations Division (CID) initiated a Failure to Register as a sexual offender investigation on a registered sex offender named Dwayne Creery.Creery had been a registered offender since October 1996 (Lewd and Lascivious act on a victim under the age of 16 and Lewd and Lascivious exhibitionism on a victim under the age of 16).On August 31, 2018, Dwayne Creery was arrested by the Wakulla County SO CID for sex offender violations. Dwayne Creery was incarcerated in the Wakulla County Jail from 8/31/2018 until 9/4/2018.Dwayne Creery failed to register with the Wakulla County SO upon his release from jail as required by Florida Statute (F.S.) 943.0435. Furthermore, Dwayne Creery failed to complete his biannual registration in November as required by F.S. 943.0435.A nationwide sexual offender search was conducted, and no current registration was gleaned on Creery in any other agency or municipality, except for:Last Reported Address – Out of StateBellevue, NE 68123-3758 Sarpy County Registration Received Date: 07/03/2018Type of Address: PermanentAlthough Nebraska noted it was his last address, Creery was out of state, and no longer registered in Nebraska.After searching the National Sex Offender Registration Database, our office found that Creery was not registered in any jurisdiction nationally.The Echart County (Nebraska) SO was contacted and advised Creery was not registered in their jurisdiction or state. The Echart County SO dispatched a deputy to Creery’s last reported address in their state, which was his mother’s residence, in an effort to verify Creery was not staying there. Creery’s mother advised she believed Creery to be somewhere in Florida, and the last time she heard from him was on October 16, 2018. The address in their jurisdiction was a temporary address for Creery, and it reflected Creery arriving on 7/8/2018 and leaving to return to Florida on 7/12/2018.The Wakulla County SO obtained an arrest warrant for Dwayne Creery charging him with Failure to Register pursuant to F.S. 943.0435.9.On 5/29/2019 the Wakulla County SO received the following message through OffenderWatch:From: [redacted]Agency: Gila County AZ Sh (5/29/2019)Creery, Dwayne Anthony DOB: 05/18/71 arrested and in custody Gila County Sheriff’s Office Globe for failure to register/false info to LE.Offender Dwayne Creery arrested in Payson AZ by Payson PD on 05/27/19 for failure to register being in Gila County for 10 days without notifying agency of his entering Gila County and parked at Home Depot. Charged with Failure to reg and false info to LE. Creery is currently incarcerated in the Gila County Jail, Globe facility 1100 South Street Globe AZ…PPD Case # 2019-5710.Contact was made with the Gila County (Arizona) SO only to learn Dwayne Creery had been released from their jail. Unfortunately, the arrest warrant issued in Wakulla County, only allowed for in-state extradition. Therefore, there was no hold or Creery, and no notification was made to the Wakulla County SO of his arrest.The extradition was subsequently amended and expanded to “Nationwide.”Upon a nationwide query of OffenderWatch, the following investigative note was gleaned:“Offender came in after being released from GCSO Jail. [Offender] will be homeless in empty lot 910 S Beeline Hwy and 201 W Main St Payson, AZ.”With the assistance of the United States Marshals Service, Dwayne Creery was arrested in Payson, AZ, on 06/08/19 @ 21:51 hrs., and booked into the Gila County Jail on a Florida Governor’s warrant. Payson PD 190006253/BK# 190600084.