iPhone application tracks sex offenders.

Run_to_da_hills

"Offender Locator alerts iPod touch and iPhone owners in the United States to nearby sex offenders.

All 50 states in the US require those convicted of sexual offenses to sign a register so that their whereabouts can be tracked and monitored.

The information is also freely available online. ThinAir Wireless, the developer of the Offender Locator application, has used this database to build the tool".

While it may be a good idea to warn you of what perverts are in your locality I feel that it could also lead to vigilantism and people taking the law into their own hands.

http://www.independent.ie/business/technology/iphone-app-tracks-sex-offenders-1844225.html

Cookie_Monster

Saw that online earlier and have been waiting for you to it post since :pac:

seamus

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

While it may be a good idea to warn you of what perverts are in your locality I feel that it could also lead to vigilantism and people taking the law into their own hands.

As the article already points out, the information is already in the public domain. If someone was going to embark on vigilantism, they wouldn't have waited for an iPhone app to come out to do so.

This will do nothing except needlessly scare people into going, "Ooh, not going to walk down that street, there's a sex offender lives down there".

murfie

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

While it may be a good idea to warn you of what perverts are in your locality I feel that it could also lead to vigilantism and people taking the law into their own hands.

Dont like that attitude, would you be worried about vigilantism if it was your child that was abused or taken by one of these guys. I for one will be checking this site and download that app when i am buying a house here.

Makes my blood boil that we need a service like this but i sure am glad to have it. These guys need to be rounded up and be allowed to live together in a colony someplace, Timbuktu or Greenland sounds about right.

funk-you

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

"Offender Locator alerts iPod touch and iPhone owners in the United States to nearby sex offenders.

All 50 states in the US require those convicted of sexual offenses to sign a register so that their whereabouts can be tracked and monitored.

The information is also freely available online. ThinAir Wireless, the developer of the Offender Locator application, has used this database to build the tool".

While it may be a good idea to warn you of what perverts are in your locality I feel that it could also lead to vigilantism and people taking the law into their own hands.

http://www.independent.ie/business/technology/iphone-app-tracks-sex-offenders-1844225.html

Nothing new really.

I've been tracking you for years...
-Funk

Robbo

Shall we call it the iNonce?

seamus

murfie wrote: »

Dont like that attitude, would you be worried about vigilantism if it was your child that was abused or taken by one of these guys. I for one will be checking this site and download that app when i am buying a house here.

Makes my blood boil that we need a service like this but i sure am glad to have it. These guys need to be rounded up and be allowed to live together in a colony someplace, Timbuktu or Greenland sounds about right.

The problem with any kind of sex offenders register is that it's inadequate for its purpose. The whole point should be to protect people from others who are likely to commit sex offences against them.

Putting everyone convicted of sexual assault on this register completely misses this point because the vast majority of sex offenders pose no risk to the general public. Instead all it does is provide fuel for the idiot brigade to makes claims about sex offenders living everywhere and needlessly victimises people who made a stupid mistake which just happened to be of a sexual nature but who otherwise pose zero danger to anyone else.

Yes, it is possible to be convicted of a sexual offence and not be a perverted weirdo. Shock, horror.

Cookie_Monster

seamus wrote: »

This will do nothing except needlessly scare people into going, "Ooh, not going to walk down that street, there's a sex offender lives down there".

I dunno, if I set my phone to go off everytime I got near one it could be quite useful/funny, especially if I'm drunk and carrying a load of eggs. (Which I regularly do you know)

AnonoBoy

Apple think of everything don't they?

Wertz

murfie wrote: »

Dont like that attitude, would you be worried about vigilantism if it was your child that was abused or taken by one of these guys. I for one will be checking this site and download that app when i am buying a house here.

Makes my blood boil that we need a service like this but i sure am glad to have it. These guys need to be rounded up and be allowed to live together in a colony someplace, Timbuktu or Greenland sounds about right.

You probably won't need an Apple product for this...last time I was in Corpus Christi local sex offenders had to have a sign in their garden and a bumper sticker to inform the public of their crimes, by order of the court.

Prof.Badass

murfie wrote: »

Dont like that attitude, would you be worried about vigilantism if it was your child that was abused or taken by one of these guys. I for one will be checking this site and download that app when i am buying a house here.

Would you be worried about vigilantism if you were falsely convicted of rape?

Or if at 18 you had sex with a 16 year old?

Eoin

seamus wrote: »

Instead all it does is provide fuel for the idiot brigade to makes claims about sex offenders living everywhere and needlessly victimises people who made a stupid mistake which just happened to be of a sexual nature but who otherwise pose zero danger to anyone else..

Or, if I remember the news article correctly, driving out some poor paediatrician because they misunderstood what the plaque outside his door meant.

Hazys

Just downloaded the lite version of the app and used it on my work location...it gives me the name, age, address and a photo of 3 people on the list, all 3 of the dudes are seriously scary looking

Cookie_Monster

Hazys wrote: »

Just downloaded the lite version of the app and used it on my work location...it gives me the name, age, address and a photo of 3 people on the list, all 3 of the dudes are seriously scary looking

Are they in the office?

murfie

Wertz wrote: »

You probably won't need an Apple product for this...last time I was in Corpus Christi local sex offenders had to have a sign in their garden and a bumper sticker to inform the public of their crimes, by order of the court.

I did not know that, seems reasonable to me. Maybe living in the conservitive heartland of the US I have lost some of my liberal Irish ideas on certain issues but i dont think we are hard enough on sex offenders in Ireland and maybe these options should be looked at there also.

vinylmesh wrote: »

Would you be worried about vigilantism if you were falsely convicted of rape?

Or if at 18 you had sex with a 16 year old?

Granted, maybe there should be scaled catagories of offences, for that example you wouldnt be on the registery for more serious rape crimes you are.

Hazys

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

Are they in the office?

Although if they came out with an app to locate the bastard in the office who stole my stapler, i'd be impressed.

Wertz

murfie wrote: »

I did not know that, seems reasonable to me. Maybe living in the conservitive heartland of the US I have lost some of my liberal Irish ideas on certain issues but i dont think we are hard enough on sex offenders in Ireland and maybe these options should be looked at there also.

From 2001, don't know if it was revoked or taken up more widely or what...
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/29/national/29CORP.html

I don't think we're hard enough on it here either, but it's two sides of a coin...Judge Banales' idea for offenders to advertise their crime on their doorstep goes just a little further than I think I'd like, particularly in a place with so many firearms and conservative attitudes.
It's a tough call...I think using methods like this are warranted in the very worst of cases (although they should be in jail for life by that stage IMO) but for statuatory rape, or child porn it's unwarranted, at least in the case of first offenders.
I can't blame parents in the slightest for seeking out this information...

Coddlemonster

what a great idea! say what you want about the states but they really got their finger on the pulse on this one...

the sooner we get this here the sooner I can tool up and go a peedo huntin

Dr_H_Lecter

Good for if you're hungry, you'll know where to get free sweets.