Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office: Operation Watchful Eye VI

MUSCOGEE COUNTY, Ga. (WRBL) – The Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office announced the arrest of 35 sex offenders, and 51 warrants issued in a news release.

Operation Watchful Eye VI involved 66 Georgia Sheriffs and took place between Oct. 25 – Nov. 1.

The 66 sheriffs were able to verify the following offenders are living in their prospective counties:

10,330 registered sex offenders
341 predators
351 homeless sex offenders

During the one week this operation took place, the following information was verified:

6,283 residence verifications were conducted
59 new sex offenders moved into the reporting counties
51 new warrants were issued for violations of the sex offender registry law
3 warrants were issued for new sex offenses
26 warrants were issued for residency violations of the sex offender residency
13 warrants issued for other new charges
467 sex offenders were discovered absconded from their last known address

Sheriff Greg Countryman shared in a news release more information on the operation.

“It was, indeed, a pleasure for the Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office to contribute to the overall success of Operation Watchful Eye VI. To date, we have about 700 sex offenders in Muscogee County that the laws of the State of Georgia mandate as the responsibility of the Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office to monitor and ensure adherence to state sex offender laws. Upon my taking of office, we’ve increased the number of staff assigned to our Sex Offender Unit from 1 to 5. As of October 31, 2021, our Sex Offender Unit has conducted over 7,000 sex offender checks, have issued 77 warrants, and executed 98 warrants. In addition, we have excellent working relationships with sex offender investigators from law enforcement agencies throughout Georgia, Alabama, and at the state and federal levels. The citizens of Muscogee County can rest assured that the Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office not only recognizes the sensitivity of this mandated function, but the importance of due diligence in the execution of this function, as well.”
Sheriff Greg Countryman

This operation follows a string of efforts beginning in 2015 where the first coordinated effort across the state started to carry out residence verifications and compliance checks of registered sex offenders.

After the operations first success story in 2015, Georgia Sheriffs made this an annual effort.

The Office of Sheriff is also mandated to inform the public of registered sex offenders where they reside, work, and attend school. To provide this information, throughout the year sheriff’s offices verifies addresses of registered sex offenders.

There are multiple law enforcement agencies collaboratively working together to confirm this information is complete and verify registered offenders are adhering to the law including; deputy sheriffs, U.S. Marshals, U.S. Probation officers and Department of Community Supervision probation/parole officers.

Sheriff Greg Countryman also included information on how the public can view this information that Georgia law enforcement works diligently to provide.

“You can stay aware of offenders that reside in your area by using the Offender Watch app on our website, or you can visit the Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office website or visit the http://gbi.georgia.gov/georgia-sex-offender-registry for more information on the whereabouts of registered sex offenders in this community. Finally, I want to recognize the members of our Sex Offender Unit for the solid work ethic that they put in, day in and day out, in this area of our daily operations.”
Sheriff Greg Countryman