Registered sex offenders living in or moving to Yadkin County must present themselves physically to the Sheriff’s Office during regular business hours, according to a news release from the Yadkin County Sheriff's Department.

The Sheriff’s Office in turn, registers and confirms the residency of each offender and maintains a comprehensive record of residency. These records are then to be routinely assigned to enforcement personnel for the sole purpose of ensuring that each offender maintains the registered residence as required by law.

 The Yadkin County Sheriff’s Office currently utilizes basic methods in tracking the activities of registered sex offenders. One is DCI notifications.

As each offender is pending release from the Department of Corrections, the sex offender unit at the sheriff's office is sent a notice telling saying the county has a sex offender being released to our county on or about a certain date.

"At that point the department enters them into our local system," according to the release.

"When they are actually released they must sign a release at the prison stating that they understand that they have three business days to register 'in person' at the sheriff's office of the county where they have listed on the release they are signing.

"After three business days if they have not registered then the SBI sends us a notice via DCI informing us that the offender is in violation at which point an investigation begins regarding this offender.

The second method is the GIS system using the Yadkin County GIS mapping system.

"When we receive a sex offender from another county or prison and we register them, we first check their address with the GIS mapping system to ensure that they are not within 1000 feet of a daycare or school. There are some exceptions.

"We also put them on this system so that their residence, and any nearby daycares and or schools are noted. This system has a measuring tool to tell us how close they are from each facility, who owns each facility and who each offender is at the given address. An officer also physically verifies each location."

The third method is verification letters. Each offender is sent a verification letter from the SBI. These are sent in different intervals for different offenders depending on their classification. Some are sent every three months, and some are sent every six months and some every year.

This letter is sent certified mail and must be signed for. Once it is signed for the card is then sent to the sex offender unit at the sheriff's office. At that point the offender has three business days to come in with the letter to verify his or her address and online identifiers.

"If they do not come in within three business days then again a deputy is sent out attempt to verify the offender’s status."

There is also random checking

"We have created checks and balances so that after they are registered and when it comes time to verify each offender we can do random checking and log the results within our data base that keeps track of each time they are visited.

"This information tells us which deputy went to see them, what time, and how many trips it took to actually talk to the offender. If the offender isn’t home, the responding deputy leaves a green placard informing the offender to contact the Sheriff’s Office within 72 hours and notes it on the verification sheet, which is placed back into the offender’s personal file.

"We don't consider talking to a family member or friend as verifying that the offender is at that address. If the deputy makes contact with the offender they are given 72 hours to contact the sex offender unit at the sheriff's office and may be required to come in to receive legal updates regarding their responsibilities. The deputy will return the offenders verification sheet signed by the offender to be placed into the offender’s personal file."

There are also citizens complaints.

"Anytime the Sheriff’s Office becomes aware of a possible violation of a registered sex offender the complaint is followed up on. If the offender is in non-compliance a deputy, usually the lieutenant over the unit applies for a warrant for the alleged violation.

"In addition each SRO Officer has a copy of every registered sex offender in Yadkin County. More information can be found on the North Carolina Attorney General’s Web site at ncdoj.gov."