Oklahoma Law Enforcement Searches For Non-Compliant Sex Offenders

Jacqueline Sit, News 9

GUTHRIE, Oklahoma -- Dozens of officers and deputies made the rounds early Sunday morning for the first sex offender compliance check in western Oklahoma.

Before the sun came up, men and women who put their lives on the line every day went door to door for random, surprise visits.

U. S Marshal Deputy Taren Groom teamed up with Logan County Sheriff's Deputies and Guthrie Police to track down registered sex offenders and make sure they were complying with the terms of their parole.

Groom has worked on the force for eight years, but says he still becomes nervous when approaching the unknown.

"It's just like an officer, a trooper, pulling over a car on the highway in the middle of the night. They don't know what's happening inside that car."

Even with information in hand, no training could prepare law enforcement for some of the deplorable conditions they encountered at the homes of the registered sex offenders. The conditions nearly made some of the officers sick to their stomachs. Other law enforcement teams caught some offenders with weapons, and another was caught living in an operating meth lab.

The surprise sting found 107 sex offenders were in compliance. Across Oklahoma, there are 864 known delinquent sex offenders on the state registry.