You will now be able to check out the sex offender registries in other states when you log on to the Iowa registry. Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation Assistant Director Steve Conlon says Iowa’s site is now linked into the National Sex Offender Public Registry. Conlon says there are many times when the access to the national registry is needed. He says if you live in a border community, the person you’re looking into may not be on the Iowa site, and this allows you to go to one place to check on them. Conlon says the national website is provided as a public service by the U.S. Department of Justice. He says 28 states are now linked and they hope all states are linked to the site by December. He says, “It’s yet another tool that we can provide to our citizens in checking, in the event that they want to hire a babysitter, or someone who’s going to be responsible for children.” Conlon says this should be faster than having to search the Internet for the registries of other states. He says if you search for another state, it hooks you up with that state and points you into that state’s registry files. Conlon says the usage of the sex registry site varies from month to month. He says this time of year when school is starting and people are getting into volunteer position and positions where they’ll be around children, the website get busy. He says it’ll pick up again at the end of the school year when people start looking for summer childcare. Conlon says the Iowa website got two-point-five million hits in July and nearly two million in August. The Iowa Sex Offender Registry website can be found by surfing to: www.iowasexoffenders.com
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