Sheriff Tim Burkhalter and the Floyd County Sheriff’s Office have launched a new sex offender registration and public notification program called OffenderWatch. The Floyd County Sheriff’s Office will now be part of a nationwide network of over 5,000 law enforcement agencies.
The new service is a user-friendly website that enables citizens to search for potentially dangerous sex offenders and predators that may be living near their homes, places of work, schools, churches and day care centers. The information is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and updated in real time by the Floyd County Sheriff’s Office.
As part of this new, innovative service, citizens may enter any address of interest to them, and see a map and listing of all offenders within a user defined radius (of .25 miles out to 2 miles). Citizens can then register the address to be continuously monitored by the sheriff’s office. The sheriff’s office will send to them an email alerting them if an offender or predator should register an address within the specified radius of their address. Citizens may confidentially register as many addresses as they like at no cost.
“Citizens have a right to know who may be living near them and could potentially pose a threat to their families. Through OffenderWatch, our office can now provide Floyd County citizens with the most up to date information on all offenders registered in the state,” said Sheriff Burkhalter.
According to the sheriff’s office, the goal of the new program is to lessen the anxiety of citizens by proactively alerting them should an offendernmove within proximity to them. In turn, Floyd County citizens are provided the highest level of security and safety.
The program also enables the sheriff’s office to verify that offender addresses do not violate any safety buffers that may be implemented around protected institutions such as schools, day cares and parks.
Citizens can access the OffenderWatch registry at: http://www.sheriffalerts.com/cap_main.php?office=56538
