GRIFFIN -- The Spalding County Sheriff's Office joined with the Georgia Sheriffs' Association and 86 other county sheriff's offices in the 10th Operation Watchful Eye checking sex offenders for violations of state registration laws.
Spalding County conducted 246 residency verifications, which resulted in 13 new warrants issued for registry violations.
The Georgia Sheriffs' Association issued the following news release:
"Thanks to an initiative involving 87 Georgia sheriffs, 48 sex offenders were arrested, and 235 warrants were issued across the state from Sept. 22 to 29, 2025 for violations of state registration laws."
"In 2015, the first coordinated effort across the state was launched to conduct residence verifications and compliance checks of registered sex offenders during a specific time period. The coordinated initiative became known as Operation Watchful Eye."
"Due to the overwhelming success of the original initiative, Georgia's sheriffs have made this an annual operation, and recently conducted Operation Watchful Eye X."
"The Office of Sheriff is mandated by law to register sex offenders and to keep the public informed of where registered sex offenders reside, work, and attend school. Throughout the year, each sheriff's office verifies addresses provided by registered sex offenders. While conducting residence verifications, deputies also assure additional registration requirements are being adhered to."
"The purpose of this statewide effort is to create awareness that sheriff's offices work collectively, network, and actively engage their offices by participating in statewide verification checks and other non-compliant matters in order to make our state safer."
"In numerous counties, deputy sheriffs, U.S. Marshals, U.S. Probation officers, and Department of Community Supervision probation/parole officers worked together to verify sex offenders comply with the law."
"Preliminary reporting by the 87 sheriff's offices reveals 13,798 registered sex offenders, 625 predators and 667 homeless sex offenders are currently living in their counties. During the one-week operation, 9,633 residence verifications were conducted, 81 new sex offenders moved into the reporting counties, 118 warrants were issued for residency violations of the sex offender registry, seven warrants were issued for new sex offenses, and 50 warrants were issued for other miscellaneous new charges."
"Most importantly, it was discovered that 684 sex offenders have absconded from their last known address, which will require the sheriffs to work with other supporting agencies and track these individuals down."
In compliance with Georgia law, all Spalding County registered sex offenders can be looked up by visiting https://gbi.georgia.gov/services/georgia-sex-offender-registry or OffenderWatch at http://www.sheriffalerts.com/ga/spalding.