Osceola County Sheriff Detectives team with United States Marshal Service Deputies to arrest 58 non-compliant sexual predators and sexual offenders in a 7-month operation
The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, The United States Marshals Service, and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement conducted a joint operation to verify the compliance of the 550 registered sexual offenders and predators in Osceola County, Florida.
The compliance operation titled Operation 2020 Vision was funded by the United States Marshal’s Office and ran from March 2, 2020, to August 29, 2020. The mission of Operation 2020 Vision was to attempt to identify new unregistered sex offenders as well as unreported vehicles, cellular phones, and non-compliant transient offenders. These cases were assessed for potential Adam Walsh Act criteria. Osceola County Sex Offender Detectives, Unites States Marshals Service Deputies, Florida Department of Law Enforcement Inspectors, and State Probation and Parole conducted proactive investigations to determine if the subjects had correctly reported their residency status, employment, email and social media accounts, campus activity, professional licenses, vehicles and vessels owned and have report travel information over seventy-two (72) hours. Sixty-seven (67) Sexual Offenders and Predators were arrested for non-compliance.
The operation resulted in fifty-eight (58) Sexual Offenders and Predators were arrested for non-compliance with seventy-seven (77) felony charges for failure to register and violation of sexual offender probation. One (1) of the cases which violated the Adam Walsh Act (18 USC 2250(a) requirement to register after crossing state lines. The subject will be prosecuted in Federal Court for failure to register sexual offender charges and additional federal law violations.
The Law Enforcement Officers also conducted four hundred and fifty-six (456) address verifications throughout the county with the assistance of the Kissimmee Police Department, St. Cloud Police Department, and State Probation and Parole.
Osceola County Sheriff Detectives seized twenty-six (26) phones, one (1) PlayStation, and three (3) computers. Search warrants were obtained resulting in additional charges for probation violations and one (1) arrest for twenty-five (25) counts of the possession of child pornography.
The operation was successful in assisting the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office in accomplishing and meeting the goals of enforcing state, local, and federal laws for non-compliant sexual offenders/predators, ultimately making Osceola County communities safer.
Please contact the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office Sex Offender Unit at 321-697-4416 or 321-697-4371 for any sexual offender or sexual predator questions or for additional information. You can search your neighborhood for sexual offenders or sexual predators at; https://offender.fdle.state.fl.us or download the Osceola County Sheriffs’ Office application and select the sex offenders icon.