Halloween is a holiday that most children really look forward to. It’s one of the few times in the year that they can dress up as monsters, superheroes or anything they want and parade through the neighborhood. However, as fun as Halloween is, it can sometimes be a big source of worry for parents. It’s not very comforting to think that their children are knocking on the doors of people who could be criminals.
Thankfully, the New York State Division of Criminal Justice has developed a way for these parents to lessen the risk of their children bumping into the ‘bad elements’ of the neighborhood; they developed the new Sex Offender Locator. Parents can now access the state’s registry of Sex Offenders through Facebook. Parents can also choose to download a mobile Sex Offender Registry App which can be installed on their Smart Phones.
The search function allows users to see where the sex offenders in their neighborhood live and whether they’re risk level 1, 2, or 3, with 3 as the highest. This risk level is important because it’s what ultimately decides how much information is made publicly available. By law, only the names and info of level 2 and 3 offenders can be displayed publicly. Information about level 1 offenders can only be obtained by calling a toll-free number and providing specific information about the person the caller is inquiring about.
Users can search using a person’s Surname, County, or Zip Code. The search function will then return a number of corresponding results. Then you just have to click the names on the list and take note of the offenders’ addresses. Users also have access to the offender’s description, vehicle, and crime details.
Through the page, parents can also choose to get alerts by email, mms, fax, or phone whenever these sex offenders move to a different address, get a different job, or change schools.
The page currently has more than 6,000 likes and their decision to make this information more accessible to the public has been well received. If you live in the
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