Operation Boo: Transient Sex Offenders Rounded Up On Halloween

Sex Offenders On Halloween: Operation Boo Cracks Down

This Halloween, State Attorney General Kamala Harris is expanding on California's 18-year-old Halloween sexual assault prevention program, Operation Boo, to include transient sex offenders, according to CBS.

Despite the candy-coated title, Operation Boo is an aggressive measure to prevent sexual assaults, requiring all registered sex offenders to stay inside their homes with outdoor lights extinguished during Halloween night. The same law prohibits offenders from giving out candy and displaying Halloween decorations, or from opening the door for anyone other than parole officers. However, as Harris points out, this law does little to protect children in San Francisco, where most offenders are homeless, as reported by Mission Local.

Under the new measure, officers will round up about 500 transient registered sex offenders in California, including about 40 in San Francisco, and keep them at designated, undisclosed locations from 5 to 10 p.m. All transient sex offenders must check in at a designated location, and will be released after 10 p.m. Fortunately for officers, should offenders not show up at the location, they shouldn't be too difficult to find: all registered sex offenders in the state are monitored by GPS tracking devices.

"We put these parameters in place so children have a safe experience trick-or-treating," said corrections spokesman Fred Bridgewater to the Examiner.

Watch the video below for more information on California's existing Operation Boo:

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