Dallas County Sheriff's Office cracking down on non compliant sex offenders

BUFFALO, Mo. (KY3) - The Dallas County Sheriff says his office is cracking down on noncompliant sex offenders.

In the past 16 months, 16 sex offenders were found to be noncompliant.

Earlier this week, Robert Padgett was found to be noncompliant. He’s from Oregon but failed to register in Dallas County.

Sheriff Scott Rice says his office works diligently not only to catch and stop people from committing crimes against children but also to make sure the people who have already done so stay away from the kids.

”They’re predators to the most valuable thing in this county, and that’s our kids,” said Sheriff Rice.

The term not being in compliant can mean different things, it is dependent on each case. It’s not just reporting an address and phone number.

”They could have a social media like Facebook or Instagram. They don’t report to us. They could be driving or operating a car that they haven’t registered with us or working a job that they haven’t registered with us. Or where they could just be at a park or school where they’re not supposed to be,” said Sheriff Rice.

Sheriff Rice says his office got more proactive after he noticed a trend.

“We kind of stepped it up because we were noticing a trend of people from out of state moving here from bigger cities to smaller counties. They’re doing that because we believe they’re trying to hide from registering, but they have three business days once they move to register in the county that they’re moving to,” said Sheriff Rice.

There are multiple ways for people to check sex offender registries.

Click here for the MSHP website.

Click here for the Dallas County Sheriff Sex Offender page.

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