North Las Vegas check reveals 49 sex offenders not following law

An annual check on registered sex offenders by North Las Vegas police found nearly 50 people who were not compliant with reporting laws, officials said.

The North Las Vegas Police Department held is annual Operation North Star during the last week of January, and officers found 49 people who were not compliant with reporting laws regarding registration as a sex offender, police spokesman Eric Leavitt said Thursday.

Those 49 people weren’t all arrested, but police have opened investigations into possible violations of state and local laws, as well as possible violations of the federal Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, Leavitt said.

Nevada Assembly Bill 579, which went into effect Oct. 1, 2018, was passed by the Legislature in 2007 to comply with the federal act. The bill’s application was delayed for years in Nevada through legal challenges.

The bill changed the criteria that ranked sex offenders in the three-tier registration system and increased the frequency with which more serious offenders need to report to police. Offenders were previously only required to report and be fingerprinted once a year.

Leavitt said those found in North Las Vegas to be in noncompliance with reporting laws also could have been living in restricted areas.

“It’s not just that they didn’t register or change their address. It could be any one of those noncompliant issues,” he said.

In total, the department conducted 431 checks, and 367 people were found to be complaint with reporting laws. Eight offenders were reported dead and seven were found to be in custody, the department said.

North Las Vegas police worked with the U.S. Marshals Office and the Department of Public Safety’s Parole and Probation Division to conduct the checks.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.