The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation launched an overhauled Tennessee Sex Offender Registry on Monday, rebuilt to modernize the look, feel, and operation of the public safety resource.
“In thinking about updates to the registry, we’ve worked to listen to feedback from the public and our law enforcement partners,” said Shelly Smitherman, TBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge. “We’ve also looked at surrounding states for ideas we think will make ours easier-to-use and more helpful to the public.”
After more than two years of planning and programming, the new Tennessee Sex Offender Registry features clearer navigation, more robust email notifications, a heightened focus on fugitive offenders, and gives the public valuable resources related to personal and digital safety.
While the TBI serves as the repository for sex offender data, local law enforcement agencies handle responsibilities related to updating offender profiles in accordance to state law. The overhaul of the public-facing registry follows updates, several years ago, to the software systems law enforcement agencies use to update offender data.
To fund the project, TBI secured grant funding totaling more than $180,000 from the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice and contracted a private vendor, Steeple Technologies, to program a majority of the new registry. TBI also worked with the State of Tennessee’s Strategic Technology Solutions group to refresh the mapping portion of the site.
The new Tennessee Sex Offender Registry can be accessed on TBI’s website, www.tn.gov/tbi.