Halloween is a night when kids are encouraged to do something they're usually told not to: knock on strangers' doors. But with registered sex offenders living throughout Billings, parents may be wondering what they should know before their children go trick-or-treating.
Watch the full video below:
In some states, Halloween comes with special rules for certain sex offenders. That means lights off, no candy and even curfews. But in Montana, I didn't find any blanket restrictions for people who are on the registry.
That leaves a question for parents sending their kids door-to-door about how to keep them safe.
Indoor trick-or-treating and trunk-or-treats give families another option. For Marissa Nava, events like this offer something beyond the candy: peace of mind.
"I just feel like the world can be a little scary. And maybe I didn't realize this as much before because I wasn't a parent, but now that I am, I'm like, 'Oh, okay,'" Nava said.
On Halloween, kids are doing something parents spend much of the rest of the year warning them about: approaching strangers. That tradition hasn't disappeared, but today parents have information previous generations did not.
Parents can pull up Montana's Sexual or Violent Offender Registry and search their community. But a map full of dots doesn't tell you everything about the person behind each one, or necessarily the risk to your child, raising the question of how parents should actually use this information.
"Obviously those folks are in our community, so we want to make sure that we're letting our kids go to areas where they feel safe, the parents feel comfortable," Billings Police Sgt. Jeff Stovall said.
Stovall says heightened awareness helps. But his advice for Halloween also sounds a lot like the advice parents give their kids each year: have a plan, stay together and pay attention.
"Set times where they're going to go, what time they need to come back, find a meeting place, making sure that they're paying attention for traffic when they're crossing the streets, traveling groups," Stovall said.
So whether families choose an indoor event or go door-to-door, the goal is simple — let 4-year-old Rosta worry about the candy, while mom worries about keeping her safe.
