TopTenREVIEWS

TopTenREVIEWS - Silver Award - Awarded for excellence in design, useability and feature set

Arizona is one of only three states in the U.S. to address sex offender online activity securing the #2 ranking and “TopTenREVIEWS Silver Award.” This site allows you to enter a suspicious screen name and the results will indicate whether or not this name appears in Arizona’s database. Like Florida, you may search by offender, offense and location making this a useful site for Arizona residents.

Arizona Screenshots

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Information Provided:

The offender profiles have a general physical description that reveals race, height, eye and hair color, weight, age and sex.

Each offender is categorized into one of three risk levels. Only Level 2 (intermediate) and Level 3 (high) risk sex offenders are included. Note: Level 1 (low) risk offenders are usually not shown on sex offender registry sites.

Search Functions:

Arizona offers five ways to search:

By offender last name
By address such as your home or child’s school
By zip code
By absconder (listed alphabetically by offender name)
By electronic identity (screen name and provider; detailed directions are given)

All searches can be mapped. The map includes the location of the registered sex offender(s) and both nearby schools and day care centers in a specified radius from one to three miles.

Additional Site Features:

Arizona has interactive maps as described above which are exceptionally clear and useful. Adding the risk assessment to the sex offender icons would be an improvement. This site includes legal information to provide relevant background on Arizona’s statutes, a FAQs page and Sex Offender Facts and Characteristics.

Ease of Use:

There is a link from the Arizona state homepage to the sex offender registry. The website is easy to navigate and self–explanatory. All of the text fields in the search box are well labeled and the searches consistently resulted in relevant profiles.

Contact Information:

You can contact the Arizona Department of Public Safety by phone or email. Another page lists the contact information for each counties sheriff department.

Summary:

Applaud Arizona for its proactive policy allowing residents to search for the electronic identities of its registered sex offenders. The state has designed a useful site providing relevant information to protect its communities: a model for states across the country.