As a part of Operation Watchful Eye, officers from the Coffee County Sheriff’s Office located an absconded sex offender in Irwin County.
The Coffee County Sheriff’s Office is tasked with the responsibility of monitoring sex offenders who are placed on the sex offender registry in Coffee County. Offenders must keep the Sheriff’s Office updated on their current residence, employment, telephone numbers, vehicles they operate, and other information. There are currently 93 registered sex offenders on the registry, this does not include the offenders that are currently incarcerated in jail, probation detention, or prison.
The Coffee County Sheriff’s Office teamed up with the US Marshal’s Service and the Douglas Department of Community Supervision as part of Operation Watchful Eye. Officers visited every sex offender currently residing in Coffee County at their residences and verified the information they had provided to the Coffee County Sheriff’s Office. During the week officers made 109 attempts to contact the offenders at their residences, as a result, all offenders but one absconder and one offender who had moved without notifying the Coffee County Sheriff’s Office were accounted for. A warrant is currently active for the Absconded Sex Offender. A warrant was obtained for the offender, Jeremy Rish, who had moved without notifying the Sheriff’s Office of his change of address. Rish was found in Irwin County and had firearms at the address. He was arrested and charged with Possession of Firearms by a Convicted Felon, Failure to Register Address in Irwin County and on the Coffee County warrant for Failure to Register.
The Coffee County Sheriff’s Office utilizes a program called Offender Watch. This program is a real-time update that changes throughout the day as offenders come in and make changes to their residence and work locations. It also has the capability to allow the public to track offenders who may move into a certain perimeter that may be of concern to them or see offenders who may be absconded at no cost to the subscriber. ( https://www.communitynotification.com/) select Georgia and then Coffee County. The Sheriff’s Office also has an interactive app that can be downloaded on your phone.
Coffee County Sheriff Doyle Wooten commends the efforts of the officers assigned to monitor the offenders, the US Marshal’s Agent, and the Department of Community Supervision for working together to keep the citizens and our children in Coffee County safe by making sure the offenders are compliant with the conditions that are required by law.