Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

Between September 28 – 30, 2020, Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office investigators and representatives from the Fortuna Police Department, Humboldt County Probation Department and the US Marshals Service conducted an annual sex offender registration compliance sweep throughout the County of Humboldt.

During this sweep, law enforcement attempts to contact every registered sex offender in Humboldt County to ensure each offender is in compliance with state requirements. Pursuant to California Penal Code 290, sex offender registrants are required to register in person with the law enforcement agency that has jurisdiction where they reside. The registrants must also comply with several registration requirements, such as updating their registration annually and informing law enforcement when any changes have been made to their address or registration information. Failure by a sex registrant to keep law enforcement notified of an address change or registration information is a crime and can be punished as a felony or misdemeanor.

As of September 28, 2020, there are 475 registered sex offenders in Humboldt County.

During the compliance sweep, 23 registrants were found to be out of compliance, 48 were unable to be contacted and four registrants were found to have been deceased prior to the sweep. Detectives are completing follow up investigations into those found to be out of compliance and anticipate cases to be submitted to the District Attorney’s Office for review.

The annual sweep is a collaborative effort to reduce violent sexual offenses in the county through proactive surveillance and arrest of habitual sexual offenders, and strict enforcement of state registration requirements. The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office involvement in this enforcement effort is funded through the Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement (SAFE) grant. The Humboldt County Sheriff's Office would also like to thank the following agencies for their assistance with this sweep: Arcata Police Department, Eureka Police Department and CDCR Parole.

Additional Resources:

https://meganslaw.ca.gov/faq.aspx

https://humboldtgov.org/DocumentCenter/View/69388/Sex-Offender-Registration-Requirements