Plot where sex offenders live

By JENNIFER JACOBS
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
December 8, 2005
There's a free new tool for Iowans who want a detailed map of registered sex offenders living nearby: www.MapSexOffenders.com.Users can type in a specific address and get a map with red balloons that pinpoint neighboring offenders' homes, photographs of the offenders and details about the severity of their crimes.Orbizon Inc., a private Utah-based technology company, harvests the information from the Iowa Sex Offender Registry, but has a search option not offered at the official registry at www.IowaSexOffenders.com.At the state's Web site, users can search by city, county or ZIP code, or by an offender's name, gender, race, height, weight, age, hair color and eye color — but not by a particular address.State officials say that they're working on a mapping function, and that it should be available in about a month.