With the troubling Jaycee Dugard case in the news over the past several weeks, I began wondering what sex offenders might be living in my own neighborhood. Thankfully, there are tools online that can help you find the information.
My first stop was the website Family Watchdog which enables you to look up offenders by city, street, zip code, or even by name if there is a particular offender you want to track.
A quick search on “94118” showed me a map of the Richmond District with small squares to denote offenders. Family Watchdog categorizes different types of offenders with specific colors, mapping out those that have committed offenses against children, as well as those that have been convicted of rape, sexual battery or something else. Screenshot of Richmond District map
Click a square on the map and another window pops up with detailed information about the offender including their photo, address, prior convictions, physical description, and any known aliases.
The map also points out schools and parks. I noticed one child offender, Mills Johnson, lives at Cabrillo and 17th, right next to Argonne Elementary School. Same for Ronald Benavidez who lives one block from Star of the Sea elementary on 9th Avenue.
Another tool that has gotten a fair amount of media attention is the Offender Locator app for the iPhone. Download the free app and you can quickly look up child sex offenders in your area (unlike Family Watchdog, the app does not list other types of sexual offenders).
Because an iPhone has built-in GPS capabilities, the app can use your current location to pull up a list of nearby offenders. Or type in a different U.S. address, perhaps that of a location you’ll be visiting with your kids.
Both Family Watchdog and the Offender Locator app have the same data in them. That’s because they both pull from each state’s “Registered Offenders Database” which is publicly available information. Keep in mind that though offenders are required by law to re-register every time they move, it doesn’t always happen. So the data you see on Family Watchdog or in the iPhone app may not be current.
At the end of the day, knowledge is power. While I don’t want to alarm or scare parents or other residents that live in the Richmond, I think it’s important to know your surroundings and be aware of who and what is in your community. I hope you find these free resources useful.
Sarah B.
Screenshots from the Offender Locator app for the iPhone. On the left is a list of offenders near my current location in the Richmond. The other shows the details about an offender after you tap on their name.
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