Buchanan County Sheriff Mike Strong says his office will be on the lookout October 31st for violations of the Halloween restriction. Offenders must avoid all Halloween-related contact with children, and remain inside their homes between 5pm and 10:30pm on Halloween night, unless there is just cause to leave.
Offenders must also post a sign on their residence stating “NO CANDY OR TREATS AT THIS RESIDENCE,” and leave all residential lighting off during the evening hours.
The Missouri Supreme Court recently ruled that the restrictions on sex offenders do not violate the state constitution’s prohibition against retrospective laws, which apply only to civil laws. Strong says that in recent years, his deputies have not been allowed to enforce the Halloween restrictions against some long-time offenders.
“We’ve been restricted on who we could enforce it on,” Strong says in an interview. “There was a date that we should go back to and anyone convicted before that, and required to register, we could not enforce it on them, because that law was not effective then.”
“This makes it retroactive, where we can go back and enforce the regulations on all registered sex offenders.”
Strong says Buchanan County currently has 272 registered offenders.
“We’re going to have several people specifically on this,” Strong says. “We’ve always maintained zero-tolerance for this program.”
“We’re going to commit our resources, and several of us will be out enforcing that. We’ll be making sure they have the right sign posted, that their lights are out, and you know, they’re not giving candy.”