"As of July 1st, an important child protection tool will be a truly comprehensive one, with information for all 50 states available nationwide," said Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. "The full completion of the structure of the National Sex Offender Public Registry is very good news for parents and law enforcement officers nationwide. The constant effort to safeguard our children from sex offenders is never finished, but today's announcement marks a clear accomplishment on the side of protection."
The Justice Department announced the activation of a national registry Web site last year and initially linked 22 states to the site. Oregon and South Dakota recently passed the sex offender legislation that now allows the state to be included in the NSOPR as of July 1, 2006. With the addition of these two states inclusion, the registry connects 50 states, the District of Columbia and the territory of Guam the site.
"With the inclusion of the last two states to the registry, the capacity grows for parents and communities to be informed and aware of sex offenders residing in their neighborhoods. We commend Oregon and South Dakota for making the site truly available nationwide." said Regina B. Schofield, Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs. "The coordination among states, private organizations, and the Department of Justice moves us closer to making information about all registered sex offenders available to parents and concerned citizens."
The technology for NSOPR is both time and cost-effective. Web services and DOJ's Global Justice eXtensible Markup Language (XML) establishes a link between existing state and territory public sex offender registries. The link allows data from different hardware and software systems to be recognized and shown through the national search site.
