It was unnerving to use the term “registered sex offenders” and “Trick-or-Treaters” in the same sentence, when I interviewed Whiteside County Sheriff Kelly Wilhelmi on Tuesday, October 16, 2012. I asked him about the fourth annual “Operation Safe Halloween” program to be held on Wednesday, October 31.
From 4:30 to 7:00 p.m. Sheriff Wilhelmi, a State Trooper, and a member of the Court Services Office will review “all the rules, regulations, requirements, and changes in the laws of registration as a sex offender.”
About 120 registered sex offenders reside in Whiteside County. Approximately 30 are on probation. These individuals must attend Operation Safe Halloween at the Sheriff’s Office in the Law Enforcement Center, 400 N. Cherry Street, Morrison, IL.
“If they are on probation, [attendance at the meeting is] mandated by a probation order. Others [sex offenders not on probation] may come too, to see the changes in laws,” stated the Sheriff. The intent is to “keep them out of jail [because of] violations and keep them from participating in Halloween Trick-or-Treat activities.”
Operation Safe Halloween was created by Sheriff Wilhelmi and the Chiefs of Police of Sterling, and Rock Falls, IL, Ron Potthoff and Michael Kuelper, respectively.