Halloween and Trick-or-Treat Safety Tips
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office: OffenderWatch® a sex offender mapping and alerting service aids citizens in avoiding dangerous homes
Palm Beach, FL – In Palm Beach County, there are approximately 1200 registered sex offenders, and we want you to know where they reside so that you avoid those houses when trick-or-treating. We do the best we can in making sure sex offenders live where they tell us, so it is crucial that our citizens visit our websitehttps://www.pbso.org/spot-unit/sexual-predator-notification/, to see who the registered sex offenders are and where they are living. Citizens are encouraged to check any addresses where they or their family spend time. The mapping and address feature found on the website pinpoints exactly where an offender lives.
You will also find many other beneficial tools such as the ability to sign up for FREE automatic email notifications informing you if an offender moves within a specified radius of any address you register. If you aren’t planning on trick-or-treating in your neighborhood, but will be in a family or friend’s neighborhood, register their address beforehand so you know which houses to avoid. You can register any and all of the addresses where your children spend a lot of time; for example friend’s, grandparent’s, or babysitter’s addresses. The alerts are in real-time and sent out via e-mail as soon as a new offender has registered with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. The benefit of registering for this free confidential e-mail alert service is that it allows us 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.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office encourages everyone to have a fun and safe Halloween. Knowledge is power and knowing where the registered sex offenders reside in your area can help you make the best choices for safe and enjoyable Halloween activities.
As an added measure and in cooperation with the Florida Department of Corrections Probation and Parole Services, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office will further increase our monitoring of all Registered Sexual Predators and Offenders on and around Halloween to ensure they are in compliance with the conditions of their probation and or the requirements of Florida State Statutes.
