8-20-2009 National:
EUGENE, Ore. --It’s called the Sex Offender Locator, and it is one of the iPhones latest applications.
The limited version, with just a few searches a day, is free. The expanded version is just a dollar.
It is one of the iPhones top-selling applications.
“I think it is something good for people to be aware of,” Beth Anne Burrowes said. She is the mother of a four year old.
"It is actually something I have wondered, if we ever moved, or even in my own neighborhood," she added.
It works by using GPS technology to find out all the sex offenders in your area after you input your location or another address.
KVAL News put it to the test and confirmed two named sex offenders as legitimate offenders with Oregon’s Sex Offender State Registry.
But it’s not 100 percent accurate. The applications itself even claims that just as state registry Web sites can sometimes make mistakes, this application should only be used as a guide.
The software vendor claims inaccuracy due to the registry, but is that true? Folks must remember that these applications are not working from the registry, instead are working from a copy of the registry. The copy could have been made months ago, there is no known update frequency to these PRIVATE data bases. Every iPhone application follows this same procedure, each making its own copy. Accordingly one could conceivably get different answers from different applications.
“I feel like everyone should be aware of the types of people in their neighborhood, obviously you can’t know everything but I feel like this should be known,” said Melanie Reicher, a parent.
What about murders, burglars, car thieves, domestic violence offenders, drug crimes esp. those selling drugs to kids in schools, etc., etc. I guess one day they too will have their own application?
..Source.. by Addison Taylor KVAL News
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