With Halloween just around the corner, local law enforcement officers are preparing to go door-to-door.

Buchanan County Sheriff Bill Puett said, as usual, on Halloween, there will be over 40 officers on overtime along with police officers and state troopers going out to do sex offender registry checks.

“Every year, we do sex offender checks by statute. There are very specific issues related to sex offenders, they have to be home, they can’t be out, they have to have their property posted, they can’t have a light on, they can’t be handing out candy to trick-or-treaters, etcetera,” Puett said. “All those offenders are made aware of that and we actually send teams of officers out to every house to verify that that is, in fact, the case. Sometimes the officers go back a second time to make sure that they remain in compliance, not that, okay, the Sheriff’s Office has been here, now we can go do what we want.”

Puett said, also with the holiday coming up, he wants to remind motorists to be alert for costumed kids on Halloween night.

“They’re so focused on the concept of getting that candy and having a good time and they have stuff over their faces and they just don’t pay attention a lot of times, so we ask everybody else to pay attention,” Puett said.

For more information on the Sex Offender Registry, visit the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s website.