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Offer no treats, some are told

Pre-Halloween each year, the warning goes out to sex offenders.

By JONATHAN ABEL and S.I. ROSENBAUM
Published October 27, 2006

GIBSONTON — At a house by the Alafia River, a dusty mutt brushes its head against Deputy Phil Merkle’s pant leg. A registered sex offender answers the door.

Merkle hands him a flier.

We’re watching you, the flier says.

The man says he knows the drill: no Halloween decorations that could “entice or lure children.”

No jack-o’-lanterns. No handing out candy.

For Hillsborough County sheriff’s deputies, the pre-Halloween visit to local sex offenders has become a seasonal ritual, a kind of anti-trick-or-treat.

The program, in fact, is called “Operation No Tricks.” And Hillsborough County is hardly alone.

From Pinellas to Citrus counties, police and probation officers will be checking on registered sex offenders and predators to make sure the ones on probation aren’t participating in Halloween and the ones off probation aren’t misbehaving.

“We are cautioning all sex offenders they are not to participate in any Halloween trick-or-treating or decorating,” said Florida Department of Corrections spokeswoman Jo Ellyn Rackleff . “They can’t have the porch light on or answer the door for children.”

But those prohibitions apply only to offenders still under Department of Corrections supervision. For those who have completed their probation, there are no restrictions on how they celebrate the ghoulish night.

“If they want to put up Halloween ornaments they can,” said Tommy Breedlove , a Hernando detective. “If they should set up their garage or barn as a haunted house, we would discourage that.”

While the law doesn’t prevent unsupervised offenders from taking part in the holiday, cops can still check on them.

“We can go to their homes and tell them that you do have an offense against a child and the law doesn’t say you can’t do it but it’s not in your best interest,” said Laura McElroy,  a spokeswoman for the Tampa Police Department.

Tampa police will have 20 to 30 extra officers doing traffic enforcement and sex offender checks on Halloween night, McElroy said.

In Citrus County, deputies have prepared for Halloween by going to the streets of the county’s 11 sexual predators — a designation given to the highest-risk offenders — to remind neighbors about the danger they posed.

Last year in Hernando County, deputies went to the homes of 40 sex offenders. Only one of the houses was decorated for Halloween, and that house belonged to the offender’s parents. This year, Hernando deputies will do the same.

But even though kids need to be careful going to strangers’ homes on Halloween, the nature of the evening doesn’t necessarily lend itself to the pathology of most sex offenders.

“The majority of predators and offenders don’t lure kids to their house,” said Breedlove, the detective. “They go out away from their house where no one can say, 'That man lives there.’ Or they live with the victim.”

None of the law enforcement officials interviewed for this article could provide an example of a kid who was abducted or assaulted on Halloween night.

Sondra Williams,  executive director of the Florida Network of Children’s Advocacy Centers, emphasized that despite the concerns about “stranger danger,” 90 percent of sex offense victims know their attacker.

Halloween is particularly dangerous, she said, because it can provide an offender with an “introduction” to a child who could later become a target.

Williams said parents should remind their children that just because they took candy from someone on Halloween doesn’t mean it’s okay to return to the house at other times.

Last year, Brooksville police Chief Ed Tincher suggested a solution, albeit one that was turned down by the City Council.

“I proposed putting signs out in front of sexual offenders’ houses,” he said. “If there was a sign there, no one would trick-or-treat.”

Times staff researcher Catherine Wos contributed to this report. Jonathan Abel can be reached at jabel@sptimes.com or (352) 754-6114. S.I. Rosenbaum can be reached at srosenbaum@sptimes.com or (813) 661-2442.

[Last modified October 27, 2006, 23:22:14]