Sex offenders: Close to your home?

Posted December 23, 2005

New Web sites can map offenders in your neighborhood
By Eric Litke Sheboygan Press staff
Sheryl frequently took her young daughter on bike rides around the block last summer, but after visiting one recently launched Web site, she said it's probably time for a new route.
"It is disturbing to know that there is a sex offender so close in our neighborhood," said Sheryl, who asked that her last name not be used because the offender lives only a few houses away. "I have a 6-year-old daughter that we waited forever for, and if anything ever happened to her, I'd never forgive myself."
The sex offender, one of about 300 in Sheboygan County, according to the state Department of Corrections, spent a year in jail for sexually assaulting a child under 13 years old. Sheryl, 39, found out about the man on familywatchdog.us, one of two sex offender mapping sites that have launched in the last year.
Familywatchdog.us and mapsexoffenders.com use address data provided by state sex offender registries to plot sex offenders' locations on a map. Users can zoom in to their county, city or street to pinpoint registered offenders and sign up to be e-mailed when offenders move into the area.
The Wisconsin data was added to both sites earlier this month when the state Department of Corrections released address data for the first time. More than 40 states have been mapped by both sites, which create a snapshot of a neighborhood in seconds that could take hours and hundreds of clicks on state sites like Wisconsin's, developers said.
DOC spokesman John Dipko said the sites, which are not affiliated with or endorsed by the state, should be used with caution.
"We would not discourage the public from using the sites, but again, we can't vouch for the accuracy of the information," Dipko said in an e-mail to The Sheboygan Press. "We would encourage the public to double check the information (e.g. names, addresses) with the information on our Web site."
A spot check of several Sheboygan neighborhoods on both sites found that familywatchdog.us data was generally more up-to-date with the state Web site. It also color codes the offenders, categorizing them by the type of offense.
Mapsexoffenders.com, however, is somewhat more user-friendly and includes a complete list of area sex offenders and more clearly identifies offenders who could not be plotted on the map. Developers say it is updated weekly, rather than daily like familywatchdog.us.
The DOC Web site, http://www.widocoffenders.org/, contains the most detailed data on individual offenders — including the address, offense, date of conviction, age and physical description — but it cannot be searched by address, only zip code.
Sites empower the public
The creators of both third-party sites warn they are not intended to be comprehensive.
Steve Roddel, president and CEO of Carmel, Ind.-based Family Watchdog, LLC, said only about 80 percent of the addresses are complete and able to be mapped, and Mark Olsen of mapsexoffedners.com warned that even if all addresses were mapped, the site would only include offenders who had been caught and convicted.
"Just because they're on the Web site, that doesn't mean there's no one else out there," Olsen said.
But both sites allow Sheboygan residents to get far more information than was available just a month ago, when offenders' locations in Wisconsin were identified only by zip code, and Tim Kaker is glad to see it.
Kaker, director of Big Brothers & Big Sisters of Sheboygan County, sent the familywatchdog.us address to every volunteer he could when he found out about the site earlier this month.
"I see it as a way of empowering the public," he said. "You can look at the pictures on these Web sites and see that the sex offender is not the dirty old man in the trench coat hiding behind the park bench, but looks like your neighbor, and could be your neighbor."
Developers say sites in demand
Roddel, 42, said a neighbor inspired him to create the Web site.
"He had a better eyeshot of my daughter playing in the backyard than we did," the developer said of one offender he discovered lived several houses away. "We had three or four (sex offenders) within a mile of my house."
Roddel, a former software development executive, funds Family Watchdog himself and works on it with six other people, two of them full-time.
"The (original) idea was that for people here in Indiana, we're providing a better tool. That kind of lasted about three days," he said. "We had people as far away as Hawaii e-mailing us, asking us when we were going to put their state on."
Roddel's site now gets about 200,000 visitors a day and has been featured on Oprah's TV show, he said.
"Our goal isn't to menace or harass people, but this is a population that's at risk to re-offend," he said.
Olsen, who runs the Orem, Utah-based mapsexoffenders.com with his brother and a half-dozen others, said the site has averaged 10,000 to 30,000 hits daily since launching in July. He urged people to take advantage of the resource.
"Really, it just takes like two minutes to go to the Web site and put in an address, and it gives you back a picture of your neighborhood pinpointed with offenders," he said. "Just go click on them, show your kids the pictures and say, you know, 'Be careful, be cautious.'"
Sites don't tell all
Sheryl said while she is grateful for the Web sites have made sex offender information easier to use, she still wants to know more about the offenders and their crimes.
"In all fairness to the people that are on the Web site, I'm wondering if there shouldn't be more details listed," the Sheboygan woman said. "Did he assault a child or did have sex with his 15-year-old girlfriend? That's a big difference."
Dipko said additional information and better search functions would be coming to the DOC Web site in the future, "possibly in the next year," though no time frame has been established.
Sheryl said she is glad she took the time to visit the Web site.
"It's nice to know that you know what's going on out there," she said. "I'll probably be nosier, more aware (now). … You want to protect your child."
Readers respond
“Another reason to get the concealed carry bill passed for Wisconsin.” — Steve Horneck of Elkhart Lake
“I had looked at those sites about two weeks ago and found that there are about five to six living in the area around my children's school, one being just a few foot steps away. It scares me to know that these people live so close to schools like that. It's not right that they allow them to be so close.” — Ana Miller of Sheboygan
Reach Eric Litke at 453-5119 and elitke@sheboygan-press.com.