Shirley: Operation Watchful Eye Successful

Leading up to Halloween, the Stephens County Sheriff’s Office joins other agencies across Georgia in checking addresses of those on the sex offender registry.

Stephens County Sheriff Randy Shirley says that the Sheriff’s Office participated in “Operation Watchful Eye” between October 24 and October 31.

Shirley says it was a statewide effort designed to verify home addresses of sex offenders.

He said the effort went very well in Stephens County.

“Of the 97 attempts that my investigators were able to do, we were able to make contact with 64 of the 74 sex offenders living here in Stephens County,” said Shirley. “We already know a few were not at home because they were at work or on daily routines we all do each time we get of work. It has been a very successful program.”

Shirley went on to say that the program did lead to charges in a couple of instances.

According to the Stephens County Sheriff’s Office, 22-year-old Ardavious Maxwell of Highpoint Avenue in Toccoa was arrested by the Department of Community Supervision for Violation of Probation and 41-year-old Keith Edward McCroskey of Hidden Valley Road in Eastanollee was arrested by the Sheriff’s Office for violation of the sex offender registry.

Shirley also says that a warrant has been obtained for 27-year-old James Michael Shannon of Toccoa for violation of the sex offender registry.

The sheriff goes on to say that there is one ongoing investigation as a result of the program.