Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Authorities make arrests while enforcing the Jessica Lunsford Act
MIAMI, Fla. (WSVN) - Miami-Dade Police rounded up nine sexual predators last night who were in violation of the Jessica Lunsford Act.
Police spend several hours, from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m., arresting sexual predators from Tuesday to Wednesday. Officials went knocking on doors to see if sexual predators still lived at their current, listed address with the state and were arrested if they were living too close to schools, daycare centers and parks.
"Additionally, we have a team that will be enforcing the Jessica Lunsford Act as far as registration," a county official said, "those who have failed to register in compliance with the Jessica Lunsford Act, every six months."
According to officials, there were a total of 50 personnel who took part in the operation. Miami-Dade police teamed up with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the U.S. Marshals and the Department of Corrections in checking out 190 sex offenders.
Thirty-nine states including Florida have adopted the Act. Now, Jessica Lunsford's parents are teaming up with actor David Keith to make sure the Act goes global. "Little kids will always be vulnerable," said Mark Lunsford. "That's why we have to continue to do more aggressively, not slowly, over the next 20 years." The team will be asking for an additional $500 million, 1,000 FBI agents, 2,000 Internet Crimes Against Children task members and at least 20 more forensic labs.
According to Miami officials, their objective is to prevent another incident like Jessica Lunsford from happening again.
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