Examining Sex Offender Website
LAST UPDATE: 2/23/2006 6:18:33 PM

Video

An e-mail is circulating among parents of students in Butler County. It tells them about a new website to track down sexual offenders. Local 12 Reporter Paul Adler takes a look at how well the site works. Lise Tewes: "Eight hundred and two." The sheer numbers stunned Kenton County Librarian Lise Tewes. The little green and red and brown dots represent various types of sex offenders in the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky area. Lise Tewes: "Look at all those red blocks, Geez." The offenders are mapped out on http://www.familywatchdog.us/ Lise's question, are any sex offenders on her daughter's walk home? Lise Tewes, Parent: "He's a little further down from her route home from school. That's what I would be concerned about, who is home when my daughter is walking home from school." Here's why this website is a good starting point, but not necessarily the end of your research. We took the address for an elementary school in Hamilton. Put it in here. Now, when it comes up in this little box it shows two sex offenders living within a thousand feet of the school. But, if you take the address, compare them, put them in another program on the internet, it shows the distance as one mile. So, the information you get is a good starting point. But, don't count on it to be down to the foot accurate. Each state offers it's own website. You can search those by zip code. The advantage of this site over the state websites is the interactive mapping section. Despite the limitations on distance accuracy, Tewes sees it as a valuable new tool. Lise Tewes: "It opens your mind to realize how many people are out there. That you have no sense you can trust them." Paul Adler, Local 12. The service gets most of its information from the states which operate separate websites. If you would like to check out the watchdog or any of the state websites, you can find a link to them by clicking on Local 12 Links.