12:13 PM MDT on Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Adam Atchison
Idaho's NewsChannel 7

BOISE -- A Utah company is providing one more way to find out if you live near a registered sex offender.

A new Web site called MapSexOffenders.com allows you to map your address and find out where sex offenders live in your area.

Idaho is now one of 10 states that can be accessed on the site.

MapSexOffenders.com gathers information from individual state sex offender registries. In Idaho, it links to the Idaho State Police sex offender registry.

Here's how it works:

We typed in NewsChannel 7's address on the Web site home page, complete with city and zip code.

The site then maps the station in blue and shows all of the registered sex offenders in the area in red.

If you click on a red icon, a balloon comes up that shows you a picture of the offender and their name and address.

If you click on their name, it guides you to the ISP Web site for more detailed information.

“We're doing it as a public service because people want to feel safe and want to know about their own community,” said Mark Olsen, company spokesman. “This is simply the state's information in a visual format on our Web site.”

Idaho State Police does not specifically endorse the Web site because the company that owns and operates MapSexOffenders.com asks for sponsorships and donations.

Olsen says the company will not make a profit, and the intent is to cover the cost of operating the Web site.

MapSexOffenders.com has disabled access to listings in Utah.

KSL-TV in Salt Lake City reports that state officials told the company some sex offender addresses in the Department of Corrections database were inaccurate.

Olsen says the company updates its database as often as the individual states do. Idaho State Police says their registry is updated daily.

The company hopes to eventually feature sex offender information from all 50 states.