Tracking Sex Offenders Gets More High Tech
Wednesday, Oct 28, 2009 | Updated 1:30 PM EDT
When you put your address in the site, you get something like this.
It just got easier to learn if there is a sex offender in your neighborhood.
The state just rolled out a new version of its sex offender registry. It looks a little like any tech-savvy site where you’d search for a restaurant or a club, but instead you’re tracking people - people who have been arrested for sexual crimes.
You start by putting in your address and the registry gives you a map with little balloons telling you how many sex offenders are within a 1-mile radius. Each balloon represents a person. To the side of the map, there’s a list of their names.
Click on a name and you get a photo, description, address and a one-line description of what each person was convicted of, and if they are in compliance with the law.
Other major changes include what you can do with that information.
The state allows you to register and track a specific offender, or set up an alert so that you get an e-mail should a sex offender move within a mile of your home. You can also have the system e-mail your friends.
“The Connecticut sex offender registry was a national model when it was first rolled out – and now we are taking it to a new level,” Gov. M. Jodi Rell said at a news conference at the Department of Public Safety headquarters in Middletown. “Our families must have every tool available to keep their children safe. This new, more user-friendly registry is a tool like none other and – with Halloween just a few days away – the timing could not be better.”
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