Williamson County Sweeps Registered Sex Offenders' Homes To Check Compliance (Updated)

WILLIAMSON COUNTY, TX — Seven sex offenders living in Williamson County were found to be out of compliance in terms of reporting standards during a sweep this week.

On Monday, the Williamson County Sheriff's Office Organized Crime Unit teamed up with the U.S. Marshals Lone Star Fugitive Task Force in conducting an countywide initiative dubbed the Sex Offender Compliance Operation, officials said. The effort targeted 49 locations in Williamson County in an attempt to contact high- and moderate-risk registered sex offenders to ensure required reporting of their status.

As a result, seven registered sex offenders were found not to be in compliance, officials said but without specifying the details of that non-compliance. Officials broadly defined non-compliance issues as those ranging from not reporting a change of vehicle and/or employment or giving false information during recent reporting visits as outlined by law.

"It is important that all the registered sex offenders know that we will always be following up," Williamson County Sheriff Robert Chody said in a prepared statement. "We want to make sure they are in compliance for the safety of our community.”

All told, there are 191 registered sex offenders in Williamson County, sheriff's officials noted, but this week's operation specifically targeted only high- to moderate risk registered sex offenders. Williamson County Sheriff’s Office officials said they would follow up on 10 offenders not contacted during the operation.

The Texas Department of Public Safety has its own tabulation identifying the names and locations of registered sex offenders. According to the agency's records, there are more registered sex offenders living in the county than the number provided by the sheriff's office—225 listed by DPS in the Patch coverage area encompassing Cedar Park, Leander and Round Rock alone.

To access that database, click here.

But Mike Neu, public information officer at Leander, offered a caveat to reading the DPS numbers. In an email to Patch, he noted the United States Postal Service assigns city names to mailing addresses according to the post office delivering the mail, not whether the person lives within a particular city.

The upshot: A majority of the 77 registered sex offenders listed by DPS as living in Leander actually live outside the jurisdiction, Neu wrote in an email to Patch. As of today, Neu added, the Leander Police Department tracks approximately 37 living within Leander's city’s jurisdiction. Among the 40 others, some live in Travis County, not Williamson County, since the 78641 ZIP spans both counties, New said.

"Since the 78641 ZIP also spans a much larger geographic area than that of Cedar Park and Round Rock, some offenders might actually live closer in proximity to other cities like Liberty Hill (to our north) or Cedar Park (to our south), even though they fall under the “Leander” ZIP code," Neu wrote.

DPS lists the 78641 ZIP code in Leander as having 77 listed registered sex offenders, a figure Neu disputes as outlined above. The second-highest concentration of registered sex offenders is in the Round Rock ZIP code of 78664 with 41. The third-highest grouping is at 78613 in Cedar Park, where 34 registered sex offenders live according to information found in the Texas DPS database.

All told, there are 113 registered sex offenders listed on the DPS website for Round Rock, 77 living in Leander and 35 listing addresses in Cedar Park for a total of 225. Based on data found on the DPS website, following are the numbers of registered sex offenders living in the ZIP codes in the Patch coverage areas of Cedar Park, Leander and Round Rock:

Round Rock

78664: 41

78665: 30

78680: 0

78681: 28

78682: 0

78683: 0

78728: 14

Cedar Park

78613: 34

78630: 0

78726: 1

Leander

78641: 77

78646: 0

>>> Image via Williamson County Sheriff's Office