Sites Help Parents Map Sex Offenders

Video: Map Sex Offenders
Iowa Improves State Sex Offender Web Site

POSTED: 12:04 am CST March 3, 2006
UPDATED: 8:41 am CST March 3, 2006



COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa -- Finding sex offenders who live near you is a little easier and faster, thanks to new mapping technology that is simplifying the process.
Many Web sites can now plot everything and everyone you need to know on a map. Searching your neighborhood for sex offenders has never been easier. For example, the sex offender registry in Iowa just updated its Web site, allowing you to plug in your address and get a map that shows just how close an offender might be living.
"Awesome," said Council Bluffs resident Ann Betts. "Awesome, finally! We need this, parents needs it, schools need it, even teenagers can do this."
Betts checks the IowaSexOffender.com site every couple of weeks. She likes the maps, because sometimes she doesn't recognize the offender's address.
"If I see an address, I can't always relate to where it is in relation to me. On a map, I can see where I'm at, where they're at and where my kids shouldn't be," Betts said.
The Nebraska State Patrol Web site isn't as sophisticated. A relatively new national Web site is, and it works for Nebraska addresses just like Iowa’s new site. It is called FamilyWatchdog.us.
"It's important to know who's living around us, and what's living around us," said Brad Dennis, of the KlaasKids Foundation.
Dennis, who works across the nation to find missing children, said that although sex offender mapping is important, kids need to be aware of all their surroundings at all times.
"We don't know where all sex offenders and sex predators are. (It is) important to teach kids how to be safe at all times while on the streets," Dennis said.
Some neighborhood groups are printing the maps out and putting them in their newsletters.
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