Four sex offenders put behind bars, fifth man wanted still at large in St. Martin Parish
ST. MARTINVILLE, La. (KLFY) -- St. Martin Parish is rounding up non-compliant sex offenders.
This comes after an unregistered sex offender kidnapped a 10-year-old girl in New Iberia this week.
"We are going to do everything we can to protect our kids, and I consider every child in St. Martin Parish my kid. I'm going to do everything I can to protect our kids in St. Martin Parish, and this is one way of doing it," Sheriff Becket Breaux said.
This week the sheriff's office arrested four men for failing to register as sex offenders.
Officials are still asking for the public's help to track down Audrey Frederick, a fifth man wanted for failing to register as a sex offender.
The sheriff's office is asking anyone with information on Frederick's whereabouts is asked to call (337) 394-307.
"They should follow the rules and follow the law that is set fourth, and we are just making them accountable for that," Sheriff Breaux told News 10.
He says they supervise 162 sex offenders in the parish, but they can only keep them under supervision if they are registered as sex offenders.
"The ultimate goal is enhancing public safety and preventing future victimization," the sheriff added.
When sex offenders are registered, law enforcement can confirm their address and do surprise checks on them to make sure they're following all the rules.
"I'll give you an example. For Halloween, there's certain sex offenders that cannot not have their lights on. They can't five candy out. We make sure that's not being done because we don't want another victim of a crime of a sex offender," Sheriff Breaux said.
He says checks are necessary because sex offenders don't always follow the set guidelines they're supposed to.
"There's times when when we check out suspicious vehicles near school. There's times when that individual in the car is a sex offender," he said. "That concerns us, and that is why we want sex offenders registered. We want to make sure that we are doing our due diligence on sex offender registry."