U.S. Marshals Complete Statewide Sex Offender Sweep GREELEY, CO (KUNC) - Even if you have what's seen as a progressive policy for tracking sex offenders, there's always room for improvement. Just ask Weld County Sherriff John Cooke. His agency helped pioneer the use of the Internet to find sex offender fugitives people who have violated their parole or who have moved and failed to register. He was the first sheriff in the state to respond to the U.S. Marshal's office two years ago when they put out a call for local and state departments to collaborate.

"We can draw on their resources and their manpower to find the sex offenders," says Cooke.

The change gave Weld County access to federal computer databases. It also allows departments to cross jurisdictional lines. All these changes come from a bill inspired by a familiar name: John Walsh, host of the TV show America's Most Wanted.

Named after his six-year-old son Adam, who was abducted and killed in 1981, the Child Protection and Safety Act toughened laws against sex offenders and created a national registry. States are still struggling to work through the legal complications related to the database. But the law giving U.S. Marshals a greater role investigating sex offenders is seen by the agency a success.

A Statewide Effort
Robert Rodriguez is a sex offender investigations coordinator for the U.S. Marshal's Office in Denver, which put together last week's crack down. Before the Adam Walsh Act, he says local agencies didn't think much beyond their own jurisdictions.

"If there was more information in one state that that sex offender had gone to another it was almost like, 'Ok, he's out of here,'" he says.

Now there's more collaboration. Last week's effort known as Operation Shepherd resulted in more than 100 arrests.

Last week in Weld County, collaboration was important. At a busy downtown car dealership, Weld County Deputy Sherriff Shane Scofield caught up with one sex offender who had violated his parole. Scofield says he worked with the city of Greeley police department to track down this person. They worked actively with another county to follow up on a warrant issued for his arrest.

"This wasn't our first plan [to arrest him at work]," he says. "We went over to his house last night but because of the different games he was playing, so this is kind of Plan B.

More Networking
U.S. Marshal's Office Investigator Robert Rodriguez says it's exactly this type of teamwork that's making law enforcement agencies more efficient.

"Now we have more communication more networking and that's the key to it all," he says.

Operation Shepherd resulted in 2,000 compliance checks over the course of four days last week. But in Weld County, Sherriff John Cooke says there is a price tag on efficiency. The combined effort saved his agency money on manpower. But housing more people in an already crowed jail system is another story.

"When we find people and make these arrests, then they'll be coming into our jail, which is good, they should be in our jail," he says. "But obviously it costs money to house people in our jail."

Only five people were arrested in Weld County during Operation Shepherd this year. But statewide, the U.S. Marshal's Service says there are as many as 700 sex offender fugitives still at large. © Copyright 2009, KUNC