"I see the powerful value of the right information being available at the right time to prevent many crimes from ever taking place," said Tracy Henke, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs. "Real-time access to public registry information can offer parents, grandparents, and concerned citizens the ability to protect children by identifying sex offenders nationwide through a single search from their home computer, or even a local library with Internet access."
The National Sex Offender Public Registry (NSOPR) uses the Internet to search for and display public sex offender data from state and territory registries. The technology for NSOPR is both time- and cost-effective. Web services and the Department of Justice's Global Justice eXtensible Markup Language (XML) common computer language will establish a link between existing state and territory public sex offender registries. The link then allows data from different hardware and software systems to be recognized and shown through the national search site. The search will deliver results based on a name, zip code, geographical area, or other query.
The Department of Justice will work with states and territories to link their public registries, at no cost, to the national search site. The first goal of NSOPR is to have at least 20 states participating and the site available for public searches in 60 days. NSOPR will provide an opportunity for all states and territories to participate in an unprecedented public safety resource by sharing comprehensive, free-of-charge public sex offender data with citizens nationwide.
