Site maps offender addresses
Thursday, July 28, 2005
By ANTHONY LANEStar-Tribune staff writer
Casper StarTribune.net
Without a taxi driver's knowledge of local street names, reading a list with the home addresses of sex offenders can provide an incomplete sense of who lives where.Recognition of this fact helped motivate a Utah company to merge mapping technology available on the Internet with state-provided lists of registered sex offenders.The map's expansion to Wyoming, complete with red pins to show the location where many of the state's high-risk offenders live, became available this week.Speaking from Orem, Utah, Mark Olsen said his brother Aaron Olsen -- the owner of Orbizon Inc. -- has handled much of the programming work that now marks the addresses for sex offenders living in more than a dozen states at www.mapsexoffenders.com. Mark Olsen said he finds the visual presentation much more useful than sex offender information that was available in Utah."At my address, there are 50 people in my ZIP code, but it doesn't show it to you," Olsen said.The site is simple to use. Type your home address in a search bar and a patch of local streets should appear, your home marked with a blue pin. Red pins then appear showing the locations of sex offenders living nearby, with links to take you to information about each that is maintained on the Wyoming Attorney General's Web site.There are conspicuous absences, with notably fewer offenders appearing on maps of Casper than are listed as living in Natrona County.Olsen said that more offenders should be appearing on the site in coming days.The mapping effort has not been without obstacles. The company suspended Utah's maps after state officials reported inaccuracies with thousands of the addresses available online. A component of Utah's registration law also makes it illegal to republish registration information, Olsen said.No similar obstacle exists in Wyoming, according to Mike Blonigen, Natrona County's district attorney."Not if they are operating off of what is public record," Blonigen said. "They are entitled to publish that."Wyoming's registration law only calls for those offenders who are classified as having a high risk of reoffending to be listed on the Web, and these are the only ones appearing on the sex offender mapping site.Information about both moderate and high risk offenders is sent to neighbors.Offenders in these two groups make up about one-third of more than 900 sex offenders who are registered in Wyoming, and they are the only ones about whom information is available to the public.Natrona County Sheriff Mark Benton noted that many of the county's sex offenders were not visible at www.mapsexoffenders.com when he looked at the site on Wednesday. He said he could see value in the site if it is maintained properly and shows both the arrival of new offenders and the departure of others.Benton said he did not think it likely that such sites could draw excessive attention to sex offenders."I think that's just part of the circumstances that are prevailing around sex offenders," Benton said. "By the offense they committed they put themselves in a special class."Reporter Anthony Lane can be reached at (307) 266-0593 or at anthony.lane@casperstartribune.net.
By ANTHONY LANEStar-Tribune staff writer
Casper StarTribune.net
Without a taxi driver's knowledge of local street names, reading a list with the home addresses of sex offenders can provide an incomplete sense of who lives where.Recognition of this fact helped motivate a Utah company to merge mapping technology available on the Internet with state-provided lists of registered sex offenders.The map's expansion to Wyoming, complete with red pins to show the location where many of the state's high-risk offenders live, became available this week.Speaking from Orem, Utah, Mark Olsen said his brother Aaron Olsen -- the owner of Orbizon Inc. -- has handled much of the programming work that now marks the addresses for sex offenders living in more than a dozen states at www.mapsexoffenders.com. Mark Olsen said he finds the visual presentation much more useful than sex offender information that was available in Utah."At my address, there are 50 people in my ZIP code, but it doesn't show it to you," Olsen said.The site is simple to use. Type your home address in a search bar and a patch of local streets should appear, your home marked with a blue pin. Red pins then appear showing the locations of sex offenders living nearby, with links to take you to information about each that is maintained on the Wyoming Attorney General's Web site.There are conspicuous absences, with notably fewer offenders appearing on maps of Casper than are listed as living in Natrona County.Olsen said that more offenders should be appearing on the site in coming days.The mapping effort has not been without obstacles. The company suspended Utah's maps after state officials reported inaccuracies with thousands of the addresses available online. A component of Utah's registration law also makes it illegal to republish registration information, Olsen said.No similar obstacle exists in Wyoming, according to Mike Blonigen, Natrona County's district attorney."Not if they are operating off of what is public record," Blonigen said. "They are entitled to publish that."Wyoming's registration law only calls for those offenders who are classified as having a high risk of reoffending to be listed on the Web, and these are the only ones appearing on the sex offender mapping site.Information about both moderate and high risk offenders is sent to neighbors.Offenders in these two groups make up about one-third of more than 900 sex offenders who are registered in Wyoming, and they are the only ones about whom information is available to the public.Natrona County Sheriff Mark Benton noted that many of the county's sex offenders were not visible at www.mapsexoffenders.com when he looked at the site on Wednesday. He said he could see value in the site if it is maintained properly and shows both the arrival of new offenders and the departure of others.Benton said he did not think it likely that such sites could draw excessive attention to sex offenders."I think that's just part of the circumstances that are prevailing around sex offenders," Benton said. "By the offense they committed they put themselves in a special class."Reporter Anthony Lane can be reached at (307) 266-0593 or at anthony.lane@casperstartribune.net.
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