SOR Screening

by Hone Mobile | 2 February 2016

I got a phone call from a school district about visitor registration and security check. The customer mentioned they like our simple UI, workflow and customization. But they mention they need to support Sex Offender Registry screening for their visitors. As parents of two kids, I agree the needs and research possible options.

@FBI has NSOPW site which aggregate latest information from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and numerous Indian tribes for the identity and location of known sex offenders. But as expected, it was not ‘latest’ some information was 1day to 1months difference from 100 sample search. that looks ok for my use. but I found other interesting business that there are businesses sell scraped data.

I thought that this is open government data but it looks just do a minimum what Megan’s Law require. (see California site) Each state has various different format of data and various missing data.

And expected, NSOPW don’t have API and they don’t allow without passing accepting ToS and passing CAPTCHA.  I hope they have program to allow 3rd party to delegate the ToS and CAPTCHA to do better public service.

In short, SOR usually contains

• Meta data : name, address, known alias, detail offenses
• Photos
• Maps of current address
• Some sort of notification for public (notify if new SOR entry in your area)

Couple of interesting findings:

• Photos in SOR is open public and accessible without authentication.
• Some open Local government provide full SOR at Data.gov.

Reference:

• https://www.fbi.gov/scams-safety/registry/registry
• https://www.nsopw.gov/en/Home/FAQ
• http://meganslaw.ca.gov/
• http://www.takepart.com/feature/2015/04/17/errors-sexual-offender-registries
• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-friess/why-you-cant-trust-the-na_b_7173820.html