Fugitive Unit Tallies 1,000th Child Sex Offender Arrest

When it comes to convicted sex offenders who have been release and are back on the streets, we must be especially vigilant. There are far too many stories about sexual predators who get out of prison, only to strike again. These previously convicted offenders have already proven they are a threat to innocent children. So, it is critically important that law enforcement closely monitor these offenders – and react swiftly if they violate the terms of their release.

To help crack down on sexual predators, I established a Fugitive Unit that locates and arrests sex offenders who either fail to register with local authorities or violate their parole conditions.

With the arrest of our 1,000th child sex offender last month, we reached an important milestone. Fugitive Unit officers arrested John Charles Dickerson, 46, for violating his parole after he reported to work in Houston without all of his mandatory monitoring equipment. In 1989, Dickerson was convicted of indecency with a child by exposure in Nueces County. His victims were four young children whose ages ranged from 8 to 11 years old.

Importantly, these 1,000 arrests would not have been possible without the close cooperation with police departments, sheriff’s offices and other law enforcement agencies across Texas. That collaboration has been crucial to our successes – especially considering the fact that the Fugitive Unit had only five staff members when we created it in 2003.

In 2007, the Texas Legislature authorized additional funding that allowed the OAG to expand the Unit. With this funding, we established regional offices in the greater Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth areas, which allowed us to respond more quickly and effectively to protect children. Since opening the Houston office in 2007 and the Fort Worth office in 2008, these regional offices have improved our ability to protect Texas children. Thanks to coordinated efforts with local law enforcement, Fugitive Unit arrests increased more than 130 percent.

The Fugitive Unit’s efforts are complemented by our Cyber Crimes Unity, which cracks down on child pornographers and sexual predators who use the Internet to prey upon children. To date the Cyber Crimes Unit has arrested more than 100 child predators.

Just as we partner with local law enforcement to crack down on criminals, we also partner with legislators to help ensure the law stays up with criminals. To adequately protect our fellow Texans, law enforcement must have the right legal tools. State Sen. Florence Shapiro and state Rep. Aaron Peña authored a law that would update state sex offender registration laws. If enacted, their legislation would require convicted sex offenders to provide their e-mail addresses, mobile telephone numbers, social networking aliases and other electronic identification information to the Department of Public Safety’s sex offender registry. With access to this information, law enforcement can help ensure that offenders are complying with their parole requirements and make the Lone Star State safer for young Texans.

To learn more about our efforts to crack down on sex offenders, visit our Web site at www.texasattorneygeneral.gov.

Greg Abbott
Attorney General of Texas