The Effingham County Sheriff’s Office is now using OffenderWatch to gather and share information about registered sex offenders living in Effingham County.

ECSO has provided members of the community with online access to the sex offender registry for the past few years. Now, through the partnership with OffenderWatch, the ECSO can offer new features that enable people to search specific addresses and receive alerts when a sex offender registers within a specific geographic area. Using OffenderWatch, people can search for sex offenders living in proximity to homes, workplaces, schools or daycares.

The purpose of this program is to ease citizens’ concerns by alerting them should an offender move to an area near them. The information is updated and shared with users as it is received and verified. Citizens may sign up for e mail alerts through the ECSO Web site.

"We know that the community has an interest in being able to track sex offenders in our county," said Sheriff Jimmy McDuffie. "This program gives them a reliable source for that information and makes it easy to get updates without any charges."

Citizens can access OffenderWatch 24 hours a day, seven days a week on the Effingham County Sheriff’s Office Web site at www.effinghamsheriff.org.