The Sonoma County Sheriff's Office Domestic Violence / Sexual Assault unit recently planned and conducted a county wide sex offender compliance check called, "Operation Clean Sweep". The operation involved the Rohnert Park Police Dept. of Public Safety, Sonoma Police Dept., Windsor Police Dept, Santa Rosa Police Dept, Sonoma County Probation, Sonoma County DA Investigators, Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office and the US Marshals.
Currently there are approximately 800 registered sex offenders in Sonoma County. Operation Clean Sweep provided an opportunity for local law enforcement agencies to work in collaboration, providing the personnel to safely contact and update their records of each jurisdiction.
The goal of the operation was to contact registered sex offenders in the listed cities’ jurisdictions and rural county areas. The operation consisted of probation searches, parole searches, warrant services, and compliance checks.
The operation took place over a four day period. Law enforcement contacted 410 sex offenders and conducted 42 probation /parole searches. During the operation 12 sex offenders were arrested; Law enforcement served 6 warrants, arrested 1 felon in possession of a handgun and 1 felon in possession of a stun gun. Additionally 2 offenders were arrested for being in possession of illegal narcotics and 2 sex offenders were arrested for failure to register as sex offenders. Law enforcement also located and recovered a stolen car, this case is still under investigation. There are approximately 14 additional cases that are under investigation for other sex offender violations.
California is one of the few states which has a life term requirement for sex offenders. However, the sex offender law could be changed shortly. For more information on Senate Bill 384: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB384.
For registered sex offender information in your community you can log into the Megan's Law website.
Prepared by: Sgt. Dave Berges
Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office
Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault Unit
Media Inquiries: 707-565-3941
