SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The West Virginia State Police on Thursday released the results of Operation November Rain, a sex offender compliance check that took place in Roane and Clay counties.
State Police Spokesman Lt. Michael Baylous, was grateful for the help of the U.S. Marshal Service, which teamed up with state police to do the checks.
“We just do not have enough troopers to adequately on our own go out here and be able to verify this information,” Baylous said at a news conference held at the South Charleston State Police Detachment. “So that’s why this partnership with the United States Marshal Service is so important and means so much to us.”
John Foster, U.S. Marshal for the Southern District of West Virginia, said most sex offenders checked on were found in compliance.
“Today in Clay and Roane counties, they had 107 persons that they checked on. Out of that, 10 were not in compliance,” he explained. “We want to make something very clear here: this is not a witch hunt. We would love it if everyone was in compliance; we don’t need to have anybody out of compliance. We get no extra funding or anything like that.”
Foster explained that operations like this under Megan’s Law, the common term for state laws that create and maintain a sex offender registry that makes information on registered sex offenders available to the public, are to protect children.
“Out of the sex offenders there is a few (who don’t comply). And those few are the ones we want to focus in on,” Foster said. “We want them all to stay compliant. We have to protect those who cannot protect themselves, and that’s our children.”
The checks are randomized as to which counties will be focused on, Foster said.
“They just pick them. We try to mix it up so that there is no rhyme or reason to them. That keeps it fresh and keeps them on their toes,” he said.
Foster said when offenders are found out of compliance, they are either tried locally or on a federal level depending on the severity of the incident.