FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: July 1, 2002
Contact: Jennifer Stone (619) 531-4766

COUNTY LAUNCHES STATE'S FIRST REGION-WIDE SEX OFFENDER PIN MAP

SAN DIEGO - "Parents in every community of San Diego County have a new tool to keep children safe from registered sex offenders,"Supervisor Dianne Jacob said today as she unveiled the first region-wide sex offender Pin Map in the state of California.

San Diego County's Pin Map services all of the County's 18 cities and all of the unincorporated communities of the County. The map shows the approximate locations of all registered sex offenders living within a half-mile radius of a home, school, park, library and any other street address.

"Sex offenders are one of the most difficult criminal populations to rehabilitate," Supervisor Jacob said. "It is crucial that San Diego County use all legal measures possible to protect our residents, especially our kids, from sex offenders."

"The risks are too great," Jacob added.

Links to the San Diego County Pin Map are available through three websites:
www.sdcounty.ca.gov, www.diannejacob.com and www.sdsheriff.net.

Users can "zoom out" to show the approximate locations of all registered sex offenders living within an eight mile radius of a location. Blue dots denote the approximate location of "serious" offenders. Orange squares
denote the approximate location of "high risk" offenders.

A previously released pin map showed the locations of registered sex offenders using a 2000-foot zoom capacity. Users complained that it was difficult to distinguish the approximate locations of offenders relative to
individual streets, particularly in neighborhoods with high concentrations of registered offenders.

The County's map, however, has a 500-foot zoom capacity making it much easier to view the approximate locations of registered offenders.

Supervisor Dianne Jacob was joined by Sheriff Bill Kolender and representatives from the Automated Regional Justice Information Service to launch the map.