A statewide search for convicted sex offenders is underway across Colorado as authorities try to nab fugitives who fail to register their whereabouts.
Over the past several weeks, federal, state and local police have made 59 arrests and checked on more than 1,800 sex offenders to determine whether they’re compliant with the law and with terms of their parole.
“They want to hide; we need to find them,” said Robert Rodriguez of the U.S. Marshals Service, who is coordinating Operation Shepherd 2009.
Today, a team of eight officers — a deputy with the U.S. Marshals and officers with the Colorado Department of Corrections and the Parker Police Department — teamed up to check on several fugitives who have outstanding warrants for their arrest.
“We’re all working together to accomplish the same mission, to take perpetrators off the streets,” said Deputy Julio Fitzgibbons of the U.S. Marshals Service.
The operation, which concludes Sunday, is in its third year.
Officers don’t know what they might run into as they run down the fugitives. Fitzgibbons and his team donned bullet-proof vests and approached homes with caution.
At a trailer home off busy Washington Street in Adams County, just north of Denver, officers with guns drawn surrounded the residence as Fitzgibbons banged on the door.
“Police! Policia!” Fitzgibbons announced as the door swung open.
Entering the home, officers found a woman with a child but not the man they were looking for.
The woman told them she’d been living in the home for about three months. Shown a photo of the fugitive, the woman told officers she didn’t know or recognize the man.
At another home, later in the morning, officers went through the same drill. Approaching the home quickly, guns drawn, they surrounded it and pounded on the door.
“Police, police!”
No response.
The team showed a photograph of the fugitive to neighbors. They said they recognized the man.
“We’re concerned about the kids out here,” a neighbor said.
“That’s why we’re here,” a cop responded.
One address where the team looked, in Brighton, was close to a middle school.
“We don’t let them live this close to middle schools,” said Sheri Stoneking, an officer with state corrections, as an SUV she was in rolled past the school. “There are strict restrictions on what they are allowed to do or not allowed to do,” Stoneking said.
During the day, officers climbed fences, looked into sheds in backyards and checked out a camping trailer parked in a driveway. At all locations, they met a few blocks from the target home and studied a photograph of the fugitive.
In one instance, when a photo was missing from a file, an officer downloaded a mugshot to his cellphone and passed it around to the team.
Fitzgibbons’ team came up short this morning, failing to make an arrest, but they planned more searches in the afternoon.
There are currently about 10,000 registered sex offenders in Colorado. About 700 are wanted as fugitives for failing to register and violating parole.
The U.S. Marshals Service oversees task forces set up throughout the country on similar missions, and Wyoming is currently running an operation as well.
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com
