Regular checks are done on those individuals on extended sentence licences or under a sexual offences probation order.
Police said that the work was to both monitor and assist criminals to help them re-establish themselves in the community, continue serving their sentences, or to deal with any breaches.
‘There’s a bit of a misconception that someone who is convicted for an indecent image offence is released into the community and we don’t check up on them,’ said DS Marcus Lewis, head of the force’s Digital Forensic Unit.
‘At the digital forensics unit, we partner up with our offender management unit and the Probation Service and we will do unannounced visits, check their devices, or we will take a mobile phone from a previously convicted offender and will do a check for indecent images.
‘It may be that they’re not allowed access to chat rooms because they previously used chat websites to offend.
‘We will do a thorough check and report back to Probation if there are any breaches.’
Work takes place with partner agencies, but it is police and probation which are responsible for looking after convicted offenders, and ensuring they are not reoffending or breaching orders imposed by the court.
There are concerns that the Facebook group Predators in Guernsey highlights individuals involved in historic cases and such spotlighting can lead to the potential for vigilante incidents.