You can now be instantly notified if a registered sex offender moves into your neighborhood.
The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation has added an e-mail notification feature to its Sex Offender Registry website.

Assistant D-C-I director Steven Conlon says the feature lets you set up e-mail notifications based on several criteria — including a specific offender. He says you can put in the name of specific sex offender and you’ll be notified of any changes about the offender.

Conlon say you can narrow the information to a specific address. Conlon says you could put in a watch for your home address and anything that happens around your address from a one, two, three or five mile radius, you’ll be notified. And Conlon says you can set up a watch for an entire zip code and have information e-mailed whenever offenders move in or out of the zip code.

Conlon says prior to the e-mail reports, you would have to check the website every day to see if something change. Now he says the e-mail will send you information on the changes as soon as they’re entered. Conlon says the e-mail reports contain two sections, with the left hand side listing all previous information on the offender. The right side lists the offender’s current information, and anything that has changed is highlighted in yellow.

Conlon says the e-mail notification is free and you can program in up to 50 different types of notifications for one e-mail. Conlon says you can go to the D-C-I website (www.iowasexoffender.com) then click on the button that says e-mail notification and set up an account.

Conlon says there are some 61-hundred people listed on the sex offender registry, and there are approximately 500 changes made to information on the site every month. Conlon says he’s viewed other websites and believes Iowa’s is one of the most comprehensive in the nation.