STPSO Announces Two New Measures to Protect Children

All registered sex offenders face special restrictions on Halloween. State law prohibits convicted sex

offenders from distributing candy on Halloween to anyone under the age of 18 or from wearing masks, disguises or hoods during the holiday. Offenders are also instructed not to put up decorations for the holiday, answer their door to trick-or-treaters or leave their porch lights on while children are roaming the neighborhoods. The regulations are designed to prohibit activities that would entice children to go to the homes of sex offenders.

At a press conference Tuesday afternoon (October 29, 2019), St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Randy Smith announced two new ways the agency is helping parents protect their children from child predators.

1. This Halloween, signs will be placed in the yards of 160 of the parish’s registered sex offenders, warning parents not to let their children trick-or-treat there.

2. The St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office also recently partnered with OffenderWatch, the same Covington-based company that provides the software for the STPSO sex offender registry, to offer a new mobile app to keep families and children safer online. When parents download the new  OffenderWatch Safe Virtual Neighborhood app on their child’s device, the app monitors the child’s Snapchat activity, texts, emails, location and phone calls. The app sends an immediate alert to parents if a registered sex offender contacts the child, or if the child lingers near the address of a sex offender.

Click here for more valuable information provided in the press release.