Operation Vigilance was put into fourth gear in Carson City and other areas of North Nevada over the first weekend of August. The Carson City Sheriff’s Office conducted almost 200 registration checks on sex offenders along with law enforcement agents from Lyon, Douglas and Storey Counties.
Officers went through a knock and talk routine to ensure that the information in the sex offender registry for Nevada was up to date. The NV Department of Public Safety, the US Marshals Service and the State DOC’s Inspector General’s Office combined their efforts to launch the 3 day operation.
In this time, the officers were segregated into smaller teams of 2-3 people and went door to door to ensure that they had the most current information on registered sex offenders. From Thursday through Saturday, 226 checks were conducted and 2 arrests were made for violating the conditions of parole.
Although the Sheriff’s Office of Carson City clarified that the move was motivated by the agenda of keeping the community safe, the recent arrest of a sex offender in California who is a Carson City native may have brought on the urgent need for the checks.
The 22 years old Jacob Houser was taken into custody in Sacramento under several charges of sexual misconduct with children. The youngest of his victims was a 12 year old girl and there is a clear indication that as many as 4 other children may have also been victimized by the arrestee.
Houser has been since extradited to Carson City where he is being held under a bond of $1 million. If convicted for his crimes, he faces life in prison. Investigation in the case continues in Carson City and may have given police the impetus to come down strongly on sex offender registry violations. Since a sex offender who can no longer be traced is a loose cannon, these violations are rightly perceived as a threat to society.