Being aware of neighboring sex offenders

A large number of arrests and crimes involving sexual offenders and predators have been reported to Historic City News in recent weeks; enough to warrant looking a little deeper into the sex offenders residing in St. Johns County.

Each U.S. State and territory maintains a publicly accessible database of offenders — and Florida is no exception. Our database, maintained by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, includes a comprehensive and up-to-date compendium of identifying information on each registrant — including a photograph.

This database contains public record information on offenders convicted of a sex-related crime or a specified crime against children.

We searched the FDLE offender search and looked for people classified as sexual predators and sexual offenders within 5 miles of the Historic City newsroom at the Northeast Florida Regional Airport at St. Augustine.

To our surprise, we located 73 sexual predators and sexual offenders living in the immediate area of our office.

This information is made available, for free, to interested citizens to help them educate themselves about the possible presence of such offenders in their local communities. We encourage all Historic City News readers to search their own address so that they can be better informed.

The placement of information about an offender in the FDLE database is not intended to indicate that any judgment has been made about the level of risk a particular offender may present to others. The information is made available to assist interested persons in forming their own risk assessments based on the offender’s personal circumstances and conviction history.

Further, parents, employers, and other concerned residents can utilize the Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website whose search tool is available as a safety resource to identify location information on sex offenders residing, working, and attending school — not only in their own neighborhoods but also in other nearby states and communities.

The National Sex Offender Public Website is the only government system that exists to link public state, territory, and tribal sex offender registries from one national search site.