Bark at the Sex Offenders!
You want to keep your family safe, and more importantly, you want to know who is residing in your community. Family Watchdog is a free service that lets you see the number of registered sex offenders who live in your neighborhood. They created their resource to locate offenders and safety tips in 2005 after a tragic murder close to home. It quickly became the national and then world resource to quickly find and locate someone near you.
By just entering your address, you can now locate sex offenders near and protect your family from any harm that may occur.
Here’s a look into the pros and cons of using Family Watchdog:
Pros
- Quickly generates map of area searched for
- Can help decide what area you want to move into
- Can use in juridical conviction if needed
- Free service
- Easy to use
- With the use of this you can protect your family
Cons
- Loaded with ads
- Updates and reports are limited
- To get a background check of person identified you have to pay
How to Use Family Watchdog to Locate Sex Offenders
You can search for a registered sex offender by name, address (street address, city/state, or zip code), or school/daycare. Upon entering your data you will get a detailed map with colored markings. When you click the markings, you get such details as name, photo, conviction, and other pertinent information.
Here is an example of what showed up when entering ‘Salt Lake City, UT’ into the Family Watchdog crime search data:
Yikes! That is a lot of dots!
Here is a key for information regarding each dot shown on the map:
Red = Offense against a child (their home address)
Yellow = Rape
Blue – Sexual offense
Green – Other offense
You can click on any of the pins which will pull up the subjects picture, DOB and home address information.
Knowing this information provides you and your family with the best defense against these criminals, and that defense is awareness. For most people who utilized Family Watchdog, it is a wakeup call in being more pro-active in taking measures in making their home more secure. It can help you plan where to move next, where to look for a job and much more.
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Perpetrators
It might surprise you to find out who are the perpetrators of sexual abuse.
Here is some information:
– More than 60% of Abusers are Family Friends (Neighbors, Babysitters, Child Care Providers)
– More than 30% are Their Own Family Members
– Only 10% of Sex Offenders are Strangers; 90% of Abusers are People the Victim Knows
– More Than 23% of Abusers are Under the Age of 18
– Perpetrators are from All Walks of Life (Rich, Poor, Black, White, Etc.)
The National Center for Victims of Crime reports that 1 in 20 boys and 1 in 5 girls is a victim of child sexual abuse. Family Watchdog gives you a way to deter your children from becoming a statistic.
If you would like to keep an update as to when a registered sex offender moves into your neighborhood, you can sign up on the Family Watchdog website for email alerts.
In addition, Family Watchdog provides state registry information. Listed by state, you get the website, phone number, and email address in which you can contact a government agency if you want more information.
Family Watchdog Safety Information
The Family Watchdog website also provides safety information. You can find out FDA Alerts, Food Allergies, Product Recalls, and Medicine Recalls. If you sign up for email alerts, you will get the latest safety information as well. But of course you will have to pay for it.
Family Watchdog is a knowledgeable tool to use in keeping your family safe and secure. It might be a little unsettling to find out how many registered sex offenders reside in your community; some might even live right in your backyard. However, as the saying goes, it is better to be safe than be sorry.
Conclusion
It is definitely smart to use a resource like this before moving to an area. Even if you live in a ‘safe’ neighborhood you should check this frequently as people move in and out of your neighborhood. We suggest securing your home with home security monitoring so if any sex offender did come in your home, you are alerted right away.
Hope this helps you understand and use their free resource and especially hope you don’t find too many Red dots near you!
This is also helpful if you are relocating with your family and looking for a safer community.
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Last update on 2025-12-30 at 00:20 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
Karen Denvor says
My husband and I eventually made the decision to relocate to a new place where it is secure for our children due to the recent criminal occurrence close to our home. We haven’t decided where to move yet, but I’ll try this one out to find a safer area with less or no crimes.
Connor Anderson says
I will try this and see if it works, it offers a lot of protection and it might come in handy at some points since you can keep track of these kind of criminals!
Maria says
Thank you for the informative post and sharing a valuable resource. It saddens me that we have gone this far with regards to security measures that it shows that we can’t trust people. This would definitely help out on awareness on what we can do and control.
Becky Zibriskee says
Family Watchdog is a life saver! We were looking at a home and made an offer and then came back to do some research on their app. Thank goodness we didn’t move to that neighborhood based on the predators there were right next too us! It’s nice that it’s free but I would have been grateful to pay for the report as well if needed. Still going to get a home security system for that peace of mind and alerting us upon a break-in but anyone who is serious about moving should use Family Watchdog ahead of time.
Juliet Emmanuel says
It would have been an amazing site if not for the offensive ads that keep popping up each time you want to do some serious check. the developer really needs to look into this aspect.
Anna says
I don’t agree that you need to pay to check more into a sex offender. This info should really be free must for everyone’s safety. This is a cause that I would take a stand and get involved in!
Chuck says
This is a great site. I mean I wouldn’t pay to find out more unless I saw the person slot in my area or they lived really close to me. But this is great information to keep us informed. The stats really surprised me and I’m sure a lot of other people would be shocked too!
Mike Hayes says
This is a very useful resource to help locate registered sex offenders. For a free service, Family Watchdog can be considered a great service to the public. Access to information like this can help people become more aware of their surroundings and the people they meet in the neighborhood or a community. The option to do a background check for a fee is a great feature. This can be very useful to employers as well. The safety information alert is a wonderful addition, particularly the product and medicine recall. I’m actually impressed at how comprehensive the scope of this service.