BPD joins nationwide sex offender registry network, tying it in with more than 4,000 U.S. agencies
Press release:
The Batavia Police Department announced Friday that it has joined the nationwide OffenderWatch sex offender registry network. This enables collaboration on investigations and sharing of critical information involving registered sex offenders with more than 4,000 other local law enforcement agencies across the country.
In addition, residents of Batavia can use the Batavia Police Department’s website to search for sex offenders residing in their neighborhood and subscribe to receive email alerts from the Batavia Police Department.
OffenderWatch is the nation's leading sex offender registration solution, with law enforcement agencies in 39 states using the technology and more than 15,000 users.
Local and state agencies use the software to keep track of registered offenders across jurisdictions, collaborate on interagency operations, and automatically notify the community through the Genesee County website and email alerts.
The public is encouraged to subscribe to free email alerts from the police department.
THE HOPE IS FOR FEWER VICTIMS
“The Batavia Police Department is pleased to join the coast-to-coast OffenderWatch network in order to better share information with the community, coordinate investigations, and collaborate on sex offenders,” said Police Chief Shawn Heubusch. “When a registered offender moves from outside the city into Batavia, officers save countless hours researching and re-entering data because the offender record is seamlessly shared from one agency to the other.
"OffenderWatch builds a history of the data we have on file, and this facilitates registry staff, investigators and others working together. So, our officers can be more proactive in offender management and keeping the community aware.”
There are more than 900,000 registered sex offenders in the United States, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. However, agencies often use disparate systems for managing sex offenders. OffenderWatch allows different law enforcement agencies to collaborate on a single offender record, improving accuracy and aiding in public safety.
“We believe data shared between law enforcement agencies leads to better investigations and safer cities and counties,” said Mike Cormaci, president, and cofounder of OffenderWatch. “With the Batavia Police Department joining our network, OffenderWatch now has most of the nation's children covered by our reach — hopefully leading to fewer victims.”
OffenderWatch allows the police department to better collaborate on investigations with the U.S. Marshals, Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) teams and other investigators. Further, the citizens of the City of Batavia now have at their disposal the OffenderWatch page for searching and real-time email alerting of sex offender movement within their community.
To learn more about OffenderWatch and sign up for email alerts on offenders, visit http://www.offenderwatch.com.
