Maryland Sex Offenders Information

The Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services in Maryland State provides extensive information about sex offenders residing in the state. The website of the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services provides

•    Useful information about registered sex offenders living in your area or neighborhood
•    Helps you track the movements of the sex offenders in your area
•    Provides assistance to parents whose children may be a victim of sexual abuse
•    Helps locate abducted children through the AMBER alert system, which is an enhanced cell phone alert system.
•    It also allows individuals to provide tips to assist the law enforcement agencies of the state of Maryland in locating sex offenders in the state.

Access to Maryland Sex Offender Information

You can call the toll free phone number dedicated for locating sex offenders and their movements in the state of Maryland through the sex offender alert line at 1-866 559 8017. You can also subscribe for notification through telephone so that you can be aware if a registered sex offender moves into your neighborhood or within the specified radius of the address mentioned by you.

The Sex Offender Alert Line is designed in such a way that it can contact individual’s office, home, schools, church, recreational centers, daycare center and other such addresses (that are registered under  particular zip codes) to notify them about the movements of sex offenders within a specified radius of these addresses. This Line will also send you an alert if there is any change in the offender’s registration status. For more information you can contact at: http://www.socem.info/ or http://www.dpscs.state.md.us/sorSearch/

Registration of Sex Offenders in Maryland

 According to Maryland state laws, all individuals who have been convicted by a court in the state for a sexual offense needs to register with the Maryland Sex Offender Registry. The category of registration and the term of registration depend on the severity of the crime committed, the date when the offense was committed and the age of the victim of that crime.

There are four categories under which sex offenders are classified in Maryland. These are

•    Offenders
•    Sexually Violent Offenders
•    Child Sex Offenders
•    Sexually Violent Predators

For  more information on the process by which the state laws of Maryland determines the length and category  for registration for sex offenders by the nature of their conviction, you can view the chart at: http://www.socem.info/  (under who must register)

Apart from these classifications, Maryland also follows a system of ‘retroactive application’. According to this system an offender who had been convicted before 1997 for any of the offenses listed in the Maryland Sex Offender Registration categories, also require to register himself or herself with the sex offender registry of Maryland.

All sexual offenders need to register themselves with the appropriate law enforcement unit and a supervising authority. If the offender is a resident of Maryland State, he or she needs to register within a period of five days after being released from a correctional facility or probation service, if there is a change of residency and also if the offender decides to move away from the state of Maryland. If the sex offender is not a resident of the state of Maryland, then that offender needs to register within 5 days of establishing permanent residency in Maryland, or within 14 days if he or she relocates temporarily to the state.

Maryland laws require sexually violent offenders, child sexual offenders and sexually violent predators to initially register with both the supervising authority as well as a local law enforcement unit that is designated for this purpose.After the initial registration these offenders need to also report on an annual basis with the appropriate local law enforcement unit.

Deletion of Sex Offender Records

The name of the sex offenders is removed from the sex offender registry of Maryland under the following circumstances:

•    Relocation( In this case that individual’s name is transferred to the sex offender registry of another state) 
•    Death
•    When the registration expires
•    When the conviction is overturned, if the offender receives a pardon from the Governor or if his file is expunged.