San Juan County Sheriff Bill Cumming announced last week the launch of a new web-based program designed to enhance monitoring capacity of registered sex offenders in San Juan County and throughout Washington state.

The new program, called “Offender Watch,” will assist law enforcement in tracking all registered sex offenders and kidnapping offenders to ensure registration requirements are met, community notifications are sent out, and that the public has access to information regarding registered sex offenders who may reside in their communities.

Offender Watch can be accessed 24 hours a day, seven days a week at the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office website at http://www.sanjuanco.com/Sheriff.

Offender Watch provides a user-friendly sex offender website enabling community members to search a county-wide and statewide database of Level II and Level III registered sex offenders. The program will also include Level I registered sex offenders who are currently transient. Citizens may enter any address of interest and see a map and listing of offenders within one mile of that address. They may also register an address and receive an e-mail alert if an offender should register as residing within one mile. Community members may register as many addresses as they like at no cost to them. All information is confidential.

Developed by Watch Systems LLC in Louisiana, the Offender Watch software is being used by more than 400 agencies in 31 states. The program is expected to be used throughout Washington state.

“One of the best ways to prevent crime is public awareness and education,” says Sheriff Cumming. “This program will provide information to assist in our efforts to keep our community safe.”