A California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation video shows agents during a past Halloween night "Operation Boo" checking that sex offender parolees are abiding by all the regular conditions of their parole and the special conditions imposed on this holiday.
"This is about letting folks who have proven to be a threat to their community, letting them know that we'll be watching them and we expect them to stay indoors and have no contact with the children of our community," said Attorney General Kamala Harris, D-California.
The special conditions for Halloween night are a 5 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew during which parolees must stay indoors, they are not allowed to turn on any exterior lights at their home, no offering of Halloween candy, no decorations, and during the curfew they can open the door only to law enforcement. Also, homeless parolees are required to report to a special location to spend the night. There will be 12 such centers across the state.
"In areas where it's not prudent or efficient to have those centers, our agents will be on GPS and they will be monitored as such and they will have exclusion or inclusion zones and they will not be allowed to travel during those times and be tracked by the use of GPS equipment," said Robert Ambroselli.
The CDCR says parents should know it supervises only about 11 percent of the 92,000 sex offenders in the state, it hopes Operation Boo might get parents who haven't to check out the Meghan's Law website, showing the location of sex offenders in their neighborhood.
"More than anything else, what's important and what this operation is about is not just enforcing our conditions of parole, but also educating parents on what to look for every single day," said Ambroselli.
Suzy, a San Francisco mother lives near Yerba Buena Center and has been to the Meghan's Law website.
"About 10 convicted adults living in my alley and between 6th street and this street, that pretty much anywhere you walk, there's someone who's done something bad to a kid," said Suzy.
