While conducting sex offender compliance checks this week, Bowling Green police arrested a lifetime sex offender registrant who is accused of advertising tutoring services on the Craigslist website.

The Bowling Green Police Department conducts compliance checks twice a year on every sex offender registrant living within the city limits, BGPD spokesman Officer Ronnie Ward said.

“We understand the public concerns associated with people on the sex offender registry,” Ward said. “We want our community to feel confident that we are monitoring the registrants.”

Police check everything from addresses where the registrants are supposed to live to all other stipulations, such as living a certain distance away from a school or daycare, no or limited internet access and other restrictions.

“Compliance means they are following the rules that have ben set, which in the long run could help keep them from re-offending,” Ward said.

Sixty-two people on the sex offender registry live in Bowling Green, Ward said. As of Tuesday afternoon, police had checked 47 registrants and made one arrest. Police with assistance from the Department of Homeland Security and Bowling Green office of Probation and Parole began the checks Monday and were continuing to conduct the checks late Tuesday afternoon.

The one arrest was Patrick H. Hicks, 63, 638 E. Eighth Ave., Apt. 1. who has been charged with three counts of failure to comply with the sex offender registry. He is lodged in the Warren County Regional Jail in lieu of a combined $4,500 cash.

Hicks had at least two unregistered email addresses, Ward said. Part of his compliance requirements are that he registers his email addresses with probation and parole. One of the addresses was attached to a Craigslist advertisement offering tutoring services. Ward did not know specifically what the advertisement offered.

Hicks is a lifetime registrant on the sex offender registry. He was convicted in Florida on a charge of lewd and lascivious act with a child, according to the Kentucky Sex Offender online registry. The victim in the case was 12 years old.

In addition to the twice yearly checks, the police department also responds if someone calls in about an offender who is not in compliance. The Warren County Sheriff’s Office also answers those complaints and conducts regular compliance checks as well.

“I think it’s important to every citizen in Warren County that if they happen to have a sex offender in their neighborhood it’s important that they know, and they report sex offenders who are not in compliance,” sheriff’s office spokesman Stephen Harmon said. “That’s for everyone’s safety.”

— Follow Assistant City Editor Deborah Highland on Twitter at twitter.com/BGDNCrimebeat or visit bgdailynews.com.