State data center updates sex offender site nightly

Question: Individual information such as residence, address and work address on the online Convicted Sex Offender List is not always being updated or is incomplete. Of course, this defeats the purpose of being able to identify and be aware of such people by being able to search by address. Who is responsible for seeing that this information is kept up to date?

Answer: The Hawaii Criminal Justice Data Center is responsible for maintaining the rec­ords of "covered offenders" — sex offenders or offenders against minors — in the state.

The information on the Hawaii Sex Offender and Offender Against Minor website — sexoffenders.ehawaii.gov — is updated nightly, said Liane Mori­yama, the center’s administrator.

While the full home addresses are posted, "statutorily, we are only permitted to display the street name and ZIP code of a covered offender’s employer address," she said.

There are 3,337 people listed on the website. Information received about an offender, after verification, is generally entered into the registry within three business days, Mori­yama said.

Information posted is provided by the offender, who, by law, is required to notify the Hawaii Criminal Justice Data Center of any change in information within three days.

If anyone believes the information posted is not accurate, they are asked to notify the Sex Offender Registration Unit immediately, Mori­yama said. Call 587-3350.

She said the state Attorney General’s Investigations Division, along with other local law enforcement agencies, actively investigates noncompliant offenders.

Chapter 846E of the Hawaii Revised Statutes — see is.gd/Je6T2p — details those offenders who are subject to the registry.

Information posted about each offender includes name, prior names, aliases, nicknames and pseudonyms, year of birth and alias years of birth, physical description including scars and tattoos, photograph, residence, temporary and future addresses, personal vehicles driven, street name of employment and volunteer location, college/university affiliation, and crime for which convicted, judgment of conviction, judgment of acquittal, or judicial determination of unfitness to proceed for which the offender is registered, and the provision of law defining the criminal offense.

Tips on Searching

When doing a search at the website, it is important to note the difference between an "Offender Against Minor" and a "Sex Offender," Mori­yama said.

That’s because an "Offender Against Minor" excludes sex offenders and mainly consists of kidnapping or unlawful imprisonment of a child by a nonparent.

The "best practice," she said, is to leave all the dropdown menus at the default selection and to search by name alone, if searching for a particular person.

If you are doing a general search of offenders in your neighborhood, Mori­yama said it is best to search by ZIP code only, or by street name, city and radius.

She also suggested taking advantage of the FAQs, safety tips and email alerts provided on the website.

Mahalo

To Leona from Mililani, who saved me much time, money and headaches. I left my wallet in a shopping cart at Home Depot on Ala­kawa Street and didn’t find out until I got home. I immediately called Home Depot but was told no one had turned it in. I put a hold on my bank and credit cards, then took off work the next day to tend to matters, starting with the state ID office. Then my son called to say that Home Depot had found my wallet. What relief! Josephine, the head cashier, said the person who found it left a name and phone number. I immediately contacted Leona, whose husband and son work at Home Depot. — Valerie from Kaimuki