You can use the Web to check on sex offenders

Posted on Mon, Jan. 30, 2006

By O.K. Carter
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
With time off for good behavior, Jeremiah Sexton just might trim his prison sentence to parole in 120 years, when he'd be 144 years old.
Sexton kidnapped and sexually assaulted a 9-year-old Arlington girl last February as she was walking to school. Testimony at his trial from several young girls, all victims, revealed a long history of such misdeeds, all indicating that Sexton should have been put away a long time ago. The jury deliberated all of 30 minutes before returning a conviction.
Clearly, the intent was that he would never be a threat to society again, and good riddance at that.
But it should be noted that not all sex offenders receive the sent-to-prison-for-good treatment. Although Sexton represents the extreme of violence and aggression for such offenders, many more have served lesser sentences and are free or out on probation or parole. The range of their transgressions varies greatly.
But here's the thing. Some of them most likely live near you. Or if not near you, near your child's school or playground.
Knowing who they are and where they live might be useful, or it might not. Sexton, for instance, lived in Springtown when he motored to Arlington and kidnapped the 9-year-old.
How do you find out the situation in your neighborhood? All it takes is Internet access.
For instance, type in www12.familywatchdog.us to access a free, national location service incorporating information from various state sex offender directories. Type in your address and your house pops up on a map with little colored boxes representing sex offenders. Click a colored box and up comes a name and picture of the offender along with the crime involved.
Yeah, that is scary. But keep in mind that the information is subject to change or even error. People move in. People move out. Sometimes they get arrested.
A more precise but still not completely reliable service is the Texas Department of Public Safety sexual offenders open records site, though even it posts this proviso: "DPS cannot guarantee the records you obtain through this site relate to the person about whom you are seeking information. Searches are not always accurate. The only way to positively link someone to a sex offender record is through fingerprint verification."
The site is https:// records.txdps.state.tx.us/ soSearch/soSearch.cfm
Click a button indicating you understand the limitations of the information and presto, the bottom right of the site has a mapping application that will call up any county in Texas. There's also a quick study program that teaches how to use the system, though it's easy enough to learn. With a little practice, a user can zoom in on any offenders in a given neighborhood, including four photographs of the person.
The system also allows users to enter specific names and addresses in Texas to see if someone is a listed sex offender. It never hurts to know who your neighbors are.