Sex Offender Checks: First-hand look shows how 'worst of the worst' may be living closer than you think
People may be surprised to learn that no matter where you live, chances are that a registered sex offender also lives within 1 mile.
"I think people would be surprised how many there are — just about every community, no matter if you spend a lot of money on your home, you’re still going to have a sex offender within a mile from you almost always," said Curtis Filleau of the Pierce County Sheriff Department’s Sex Offender Unit.
There are approximately 2,400 registered sex offenders in Pierce County alone and it’s the Sex Offender Unit that checks up on these offenders to make sure they live at the address they have registered.

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"Sometimes they say they say they’re staying somewhere and don’t really stay there. So we’ll use some various techniques to try and verify that they do stay there," Filleau said.
Police check on Level 1 sex offenders once a year, Level 2 offenders get checked every six months and Level 3 offenders are verified a minimum of every three months.  
About 90 percent of the sex offenders this unit checks do live where they claim, but for those who can’t be verified by the unit, Filleau said they will be found and sent bank to prison.
"If we verify that he’s not living here, a report will be sent to the prosecutor’s office asking for a charging on him, so one way or another we’ll determine whether he’s here or not," he said.