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DURANT, OK and DENISON, TX -- Thousands of kids across Texoma will be trick-or-treating Wednesday night and local law enforcement urges parents and children to beware of more than just ghosts and goblins.
Lt. Chris Marcy with Durant Police says sex crimes are on the rise and it is especially important to stick with your children on Halloween night. With hundreds of registered sex offenders in Texoma Lt Mike Eppler with Denison Police says do your homework before you go knocking on doors.
"There's notifications in the newspaper, there's public notifications about it. It's on the website," Lt. Eppler.
Residents who live in Texas can visit the Texas DPS website to find out where offenders live and Oklahomans can check in with the Department of Corrections, but there are sex offenders who fail to register.
"There probably are some, but they also know that there are severe penalties for that too," Lt. Eppler said.
"Failing to register has a sex offender is a felony and of course they can be arrested immediately and taken to jail," Lt. Marcy.
That is why officers say always keep your kids in sight, and that is exactly what Texoma parents we spoke to say they are going to do.
"My wife and I both go we tend to go with a group of friends so we have a lot of kids so we watch. We keep an eye on people," Mark Hainen said.
"We try to stay in the neighborhood that we know and that we are familiar with, and we kind of go to the same neighborhood year to year," Heidi Pughe said.
Lt. Marcy says keeping a close eye on your kids is something you should do on Halloween and all year round.
"It's a tough environment to raise kids in right now unfortunately so the more parents can be involved with their kids the better," Lt. Marcy said.
Here are some links to learn about sex offenders near you.
TEXAS DPS:
https://records.txdps.state.tx.us/DPS_WEB/SorNew/index.aspx
Oklahoma DOC:
http://www.doc.state.ok.us/offenders/offenders.htm
National Sex Offender Registry:
http://www.nsopw.gov
iPhone Apps:
"Crimereports"
"Life360"
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