MapSexOffenders.com - Coaching Up the Journal Ed Board

I was a little surprised to read the Journal’s editorial this morning about the new updates to the sex offender web site. According to the Journal:

As of Thursday, Department of Corrections Secretary Matt Frank has promised, it includes specific addresses for those offenders registered. The Web site at http://widocoffenders.org was clunky in practice when we tried it (because of "traffic congestion," said a spokesman), but addresses were included.
Go to the Web site, and click on Search Registry. You can search by name or location. In the location field, type in a ZIP code. Names of sexual offenders who are required to register will appear. Click on any one of them, and that offender's information will pop up, including address.
The ability to type in addresses and get offenders in proximity would be handier, but this addition is an improvement.

A cursory search of the web would have found them a number of sites that not only show sex offenders in the proximity of a given address, but also give a picture of said offender. My favorite is mapsexoffenders.com which uses the google map tool to plot each sex offender in the vicinity of an address or zip code. Clicking on each pinpoint brings up the address and mug shot of the offender. This is a fantastic resource that is far and away better than that listed by the Journal. Shocking.