It was announced on Monday that Sheriff Adam Christianson has launched a new sex offender registration and public notification website called OffenderWatch®. The Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department will now be part of a nationwide network of over 5,000 law enforcement agencies which includes over 45 California law enforcement agencies.

The new service is a citizen-friendly, easy to use website that enables people to search for potentially dangerous sex offenders and predators, who may be in close proximity to their homes, places of work, schools, churches and day care centers.

The information is available 24 hours a day 7 days a week and is updated in real time by the department as offender information changes and is reported. As part of this new, innovative service, people may enter any address of interest to them, see a map and a listing of all offenders within a user defined radius (of .25 miles out to 2 miles) of that particular address.

People can then register their address to be continuously monitored by the Sheriff’s Department, who will send to them an email alerting them if an offender or predator should register an address within that user defined radius. Users may confidentially register as many addresses as they like, at no cost to them.

“People have a right to know which offenders may be living near them, who potentially pose a threat to their families. We’re happy to be able to provide that information.” said Sheriff Adam Christianson.

The Sheriffs of California using OffenderWatch® have the most up-to-date information on all offenders registered in the State.

The Sheriff has also made available additional web based resources designed to educate and share information with the community to help keep our families safe. The purpose of the program is to inform the community by proactively alerting them should an offender/predator move within proximity to them.

Offender Watch enables the Sheriff’s Department to verify that offender addresses do not violate any safety buffers that may be implemented around protected institutions in the County, such as schools, day care facilities and parks. It also helps law enforcement schedule compliance checks, verifying information provided by offenders.

The community can access the OffenderWatch® registry at the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department’s sex offender search page.