The West Virginia State Police has received a $30,000 Grant from the WV Technical Assistance Broad Band Grant Program, to develop and Law Enforcement Sex Offender Mapping Program. The award was a part of solicitation offered by the West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey who oversees the WV Broadband Mapping Program.
This grant will enable the West Virginia State Police to create a mapping system for registered sex offenders in the State. This will enable Troopers a quick method to identify all sex offenders within a given region by making inquiries to the mapping system. Under the current operations, Troopers would have to manually search sex offender files on detachments which are maintained in an alphabetical order. This is a time consuming effort to identify sex offenders within a given area of a particular location.
This mapping system will save vital time in instances of child abductions, as one of the first investigative leads conducted is to locate convicted sex offenders within a given area of the abduction. This mapping system will have the capabilities to search for sex offenders within a given radius of a particular address. This program will provide Troopers with vastly more information than is available on similar public mapping systems.
The West Virginia State Police has partnered with West Virginia University through the WV3C (West Virginia Cyber Crime Cooperative) to develop this program. The West Virginia State Police hopes to have a working product available by July 2014.
Questions or requests for interviews should be directed to Lieutenant D. B. Swiger at 304-293-6400.
