The Spokane County Sheriff's Office feels you have the right to know about registered sex offenders in your neighborhood. We believe you need to be well informed and this site is intended to achieve that goal.

The Washington State Registered Sex Offender Law began in 1990. The law was later amended to include kidnapping offenders in the registration program (1997). In accordance with the law, the Spokane County Sheriff's Office is required to maintain the registration information for the convicted offenders living in the entire Spokane County area. Local law enforcement agencies in the incorporated areas of Spokane County are responsible for making sure the offenders living in those jurisdictions are residing at the addresses they reported on their registration forms.

The Sex/Kidnapping Offender Registration Law allows the Spokane County Sheriff's Office to register and track convicted offenders. However, the sheriff's office has no legal authority to direct where a sex offender may or may not live. The State Department of Corrections does have limited authority to restrict living choices for offenders who are still on probation or parole for their crime(s). Unless court-ordered restrictions exist, these offenders are constitutionally free to live wherever they choose.

Sex offenders have always lived in our communities; but it wasn't until passage of the Community Protection Act of 1990 (which mandates sex offender registration) that law enforcement even knew where they were living. In many cases, law enforcement is now able to share that information with you. Citizen abuse of this information to threaten, intimidate, or harass registered sex offenders will not be tolerated. Further, such abuse could potentially end law enforcement's ability to do community information dissemination. We believe the only person who wins if community notification ends is the sex offender, since sex offenders derive their power through secrecy. This site is not meant to violate anyone's privacy or livelihood. It is a tool to inform the public and provide information as allowed by state law. Please do not misuse or abuse the information we have provided on this Internet site.

When you enter the search area, you are given the option of two different methods of searching. One will return a report based on the address that you enter. If you enter an address within the city limits of Spokane, only level 3 sex/kidnapping offenders will be displayed. In all other areas of Spokane County this report provides a list of Level 2 and 3 registered sex/kidnapping offenders that have a reportable address in Spokane County, within an approximate half-mile radius of the address information you entered. Also listed is the number of level 1 offenders living in that same area.

No additional information is being provided for level 1 offenders because they are least likely to re-offend and most have successfully participated in a treatment program. Information in these reports for level 2 and 3 offenders will contain the offender's name, age, race, classification level and crime of conviction and or the crime that originally required the subject to become a registered offender.

The second search function is related only to "Level Three" offenders, meaning those that pose the greatest potential harm to our communities. All level 3 offenders that registered an address within the Spokane County area are included. This search will provide an approximate address of the offender, a photograph of the offender, and a brief narrative section (when available) describing the past crimes and other information that led authorities to classify the offender as a "Level Three" sex offender.

Regardless of your search method, your report will only contain information about offenders who have properly registered with the Spokane Sheriff's Office and have a current address in the county.

When an offender is released from custody and placed back to the community, the Washington State Department of Corrections Community Protection Unit evaluates the offender. They determine the risk classification level for the offender. This evaluation is based on a complex scoring and review process. Community safety is a primary factor in the process. The classification levels basically have the following meanings:

Washington State's Sex Offender/Kidnapping Offender Registration program was one of the original programs in the nation and is often used as a model by other states. Most laws pertaining to the program may be found in the Revised Code of Washington (RCW).

Authority for local law enforcement agencies can be found in RCW 9A.44.130. Information and laws related to the disclosure of information can be found in RCW 4.24.550.

Thank you for taking the time to visit this site. This information is provided to educate and inform you of what is going on in your community. Please use this site in a positive way and help to make our community safe for everyone.