Operation Verify Results in 846 Arrests and 836 Pending Warrants

November 10, 2005     

EAST LANSING. – Director of the Michigan State Police, Col. Tadarial J. Sturdivant announced today that 846 people have been arrested and 836 additional arrest warrants have been requested following a 55-day, statewide initiative led by the Michigan State Police (MSP) aimed at increasing compliance with the state’s sex offender law.

Over 150 law enforcement agencies and prosecutors’ offices participated in the state’s first coordinated sex offender sweep, dubbed Operation Verify.  This was the first statewide effort to proactively pick up offenders and will be an ongoing effort.

Officers targeted felony-listed offenders who failed to change or verify their address during the October verification period, which ran until October 15.  Officers also conducted 3,794 random residence checks of registered sex offenders to ensure compliance with the reporting requirements of the state’s Sex Offenders Registration Act (PA 295 of 1994).

The Sex Offenders Registration Act requires offenders convicted of a felony listed offense to verify their address at a local law enforcement agency quarterly during the first 15 days of January, April, July and October.  Failure to do so is a 93-day misdemeanor.  Offenders convicted of misdemeanor offenses must report to law enforcement to verify their address yearly, January 1 through January 15.  Failure to do so is a 93-day misdemeanor. 

Convicted offenders must also report a change of address within 10 days of moving, and failure to do so is a four-year felony.

“Law enforcement in Michigan is committed to ensuring the safety of our children and families by ensuring compliance with our state’s sex offender laws,” stated Sturdivant.  “We are putting registered sex offenders on notice that this is the first sweep, not the last.”

Of the 846 arrests, 355 were felonies for failure to change an address, 465 were misdemeanors for failure to verify an address and 26 were for other misdemeanor sex offender registry violations including failure to pay the registration fee and failure to sign the registration form.

In addition, 101 outstanding warrants, not related to the Sex Offender Registry, were satisfied and 64 offenders were charged with additional crimes.

As of November 1, there were 37,916 offenders statewide in the Sex Offender Registry.  Of those, 23,885 are required to verify their address either yearly or quarterly depending on the offense.

CONTACT: D/Sgt. Kyle McPhee, MSP LansingPost, (517) 322-1906