Finding Registered Sex Offenders Online

From time to time, the need to know your neighbors comes up.

The sex offender registry offers residents the chance to look up registered sex offenders within their community. The information on these sites is of public record, and new neighbors are legally supposed to announce themselves as sex offenders if they've been convicted. But that transparency can be hard to come by — unless you know about CrimeReports.com, or the California Attorney General's Megan's Law website.

The websites are a great resource for local crime data and information on registered sex offenders in California.

The public and police departments (Campbell Police joined the agencies that utilize the site in 2011) use them to show the community where crimes are taking place and where offenders live and their identities.

But even in places outside local police departments' jurisdictions, the websites have mapped the addresses, names and photos of sex offenders in the entire country. 

The criminals are marked on the CrimeReports.com map with red triangles. Orange triangles symbolize two sex offenders living at one address. Click on the triangles to see details on the offenders. 

According to the Megan's Law website, there are 41 registered sex offenders in Campbell. Crimereports.com lists many more.

Do you worry about your neighbors? Tell us in the comments.