How to Use the Family Watch Dog Sex Offender Registry

Approximately three years ago; I dropped my daughter off at the bus stop and came home to a ringing phone. On the other line was our school's principal. In a quivering voice she asked me if I had an attorney? The reason for this question? My daughter's bus driver had molested two girls. Since that time, I have been vigilant about knowing who is in my neigborhood. Family Watchdog is an excellent device that parents can utilize to do just that. It is a site launched by the National Coalition of Victims in Action. It allows you to use local maps to display sex offenders in specific areas. Here's how to use its registry.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• computer
• time

1. First, create a safey portal. It is completely free. This generates a website for you and other parents to access information.

2. Customize your site's text. Here is where you will want to leave your contact informaton, organizational name, email and phone number.

3. Set a starting point for your map. I just put in my address, city, state and zip code. My website is set up for parents within my school district; however you can manipulate the address to view a desired location.

4. Select state registries to be used on your safety portal. You can choose to show offenders who are on a state registry and do not live in that state or offenders from all state registries.

5. You can upload a image for your site, customize site colors etc. More importantly this is when you can turn off any ads and remove links to various pages!

6. Once your site is up you can search for offenders, find FDA food and drug recalls, product recalls and get safety tips.

Resources

• Family Watch Dog

[athome]

on 3/15/2009 Good article, thanks For the info

[acole]

on 1/14/2009 Good article. Thanks!