Attorney General Kamala D. Harris Announces Multi - Agency operation to keep kids safe on halloween

>>DIRECTOR ROBERT AMBROSELLI: Good morning! My name is Robert Ambroselli. I'm the Director of California State Parole, and I want to thank you for attending this press conference this morning. Today, California State Parole has collaborated with both the Department of Justice and local law enforcement to maximize the protection of children against *** predators. This collaboration, known as Operation Boo, has been in existence for more than 18 years. There will be more than 550 law enforcement officers, including local, State, and Department of Justice agents, enforcing the compliance of *** predators in the community. I'll give a full operational briefing in just a little bit, but first I want to introduce a very special guest. We're honored to have with us today the 32nd Attorney General in the State of California, Kamala Harris. Attorney General Harris has a long history of law enforcement operations like this. She's a career prosecutor and a former District Attorney of San Francisco County. It's my pleasure to introduce California's top cop, Attorney General Kamala Harris. >>ATTORNEY GENERAL KAMALA D. HARRIS: Thank you. So, first let me thank Director Ambroselli for your leadership. We've been working a lot together for the course of this last past year, and what we know now more than ever is that it is critical that we reinforce the collaboration that should and must occur between State and local law enforcement. So, we are announcing this Operation and what is different and unique about it this year is that we have assigned, and I've assigned out of the California Department of Justice, 22 special agents to work alongside local police and parole to do the work we need to do of knocking on doors and making sure known sex offenders are staying in their homes and off the streets. This Operation is about making sure that our children are safe and protected on a night that is and should be associated with celebration and joy. It is also about doing what we believe is the smart-on-crime approach to public safety and law enforcement, which is to focus on prevention. This is about letting folks who have been proven to be a threat to their community, letting them know that we'll be watching them and we expect them to stay indoors and have no contact with the children of our community. So, I want to thank State Parole. I want to acknowledge the special agents from the Department of Justice who are here and doing this very important work. And, again, the idea is to prevent a crime from occurring by focusing on known offenders and making sure that they are complying by the rules, and staying off our streets. So, thank you all very much. >>DIRECTOR ROBERT AMBROSELLI: Thank you very much. Appreciate your time. Thank you. Operation Boo is about protecting our communities from *** predators and educating parents. As such, for tonight, the following conditions of parole apply to all sex offenders on parole: a 5 pm to 5 am curfew during which sex-offender parolees must remain indoors; all exterior lights of their homes must be turned off so it looks as if no one is home, which should discourage children from approaching; no offering of Halloween candy and no Halloween decorations are allowed; during the curfew, sex-offender parolees can only open the door to respond to law enforcement, such as a parole agent who is patrolling, and/or who are patrolling, caseloads to ensure that the offenders are compliance... are in compliance. This year Operation Boo also includes two other features specifically designed to address situations that have emerged within our transient, sex-offender population. First, we're expanding a method first used here in San Francisco of ordering them--the sex offenders--to serve the Trick-or-Treat hours in a transient, sex-offender curfew center. We'll have 12 of these centers statewide in the regions, and those offenders shall report to those centers that are transient during those Trick-or-Treat times. Secondly, in areas where it's not prudent or efficient to have those centers, our agents will be on GPS and they will be monitored as such, and they will have exclusion or inclusion zones, and they will not be allowed to travel during those times by the use--and be tracked by the use of GPS equipment. It's important to let parents know that State Parole only supervises about 10% of the sex-offender population. As such, this year, Operation Boo is adding an online parent's guide designed to empower parents and raise awareness amongst children on what to look for. You should have a printed copy of that in your press packet, and please feel free to provide that link to members of the community. Our hope is that this new tool will empower parents to share information with their children and keep them safe-- not just during Halloween, but everyday. Thank you.