Houston News: Houston Officers Crack Down on Sex Offenders

The state attorney general's office says it has hit a milestone, having now arrested 400 child sex offenders since 2003, reports Houston News. One man was arrested near a gas station, another at his job. Now all of the men are back behind bars. They had already served time for victimizing young children. But once they got out of prison, police say they broke the law again.
Convicted sex offenders are criminals with some of the highest rates of reoffending. The law requires they register once released from prison. But some of them do not.

"The law abiding citizens who want to protect their children have a right to know if there's someone living next to them or in their neighborhood who could assault their children," said Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott.

No one knew where Frederick Espinosa, Morris Gray and Cornelius Osborne lived until a few days ago. The convicted sex offenders effectively slipped into darkness. They did it, says the Texas attorney general, by not registering.
The three were among five men arrested Monday in the Houston area -- five men who helped Abbott reach a milestone. Officials have taken 400 sex predators off the streets over the past three years Houston News reports.

Abbott said, "The fact of the matter is, here in the state of Texas, we need to do all we can to make sure that our children are protected from these most dangerous criminals who have the highest level of recidivism."

Seventy-two of those arrests happened in the greater in Houston area. Abbott credits the fugitive and cyber crimes units with the arrests. He created both of the specialized divisions in 2003.

"The way it's done, frankly, is just the good old fashioned law enforcement way," Abbott explained. "They will go to the last known lead or piece of information, and they have to keep going to the next contact, next contact."

The number of sex offenders still on the loose is at least in the hundreds. It fluctuates depending on how many of them follow the law.

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