On Dec. 15, the California Department of Justice released the new Megan's Law website. Now, citizens can access information about registered sex offenders—including their names and, in some cases, photos and street addresses— from their home computers. Previously, the information was only available at law enforcement offices.

With a click of the mouse, users can locate sex offenders that live in their area by entering a county, zip code, city, address, park or school. According to the website, 59 registered sex offenders live in the 95125 zip code, 44 of whom have their full addresses listed.

The new website is the result of a California law that passed in August, 2004. But Nathan Barankin, the communications director for Attorney General Bill Lockyer, said the office of the Attorney General had advocated for years to put the information online.

"We knew the public had a strong interest in this information, and having the physical requirement of appearing at a law enforcement office made it difficult to access," Barankin said. "That's why Attorney General Bill Lockyer thought it would be appropriate to put this information on the web."

However, Barankin said the office had also considered some of the potential problems that could arise out of making sex offender's personal information available to the public.

"We considered the prospect of sex offenders being able to network by accessing each other's information," he said. "Also, there was some concern about the public's response. Some people might be irresponsible with the information available to them. Those concerns are brought up repeatedly, and are not unique to the Internet. But we haven't seen those problems in the past, and we don't expect them to occur now."

Detective Frank Swaringen, who serves on the San Jose Police Department's Sex Offender Tracking Team, agreed that giving the public easier access to sex offender's information overrode the potential for vigilante violence.

"We don't want someone taking the law into their own hands, but we feel the website is a good step," Swaringen said. "It's a new system, and much more convenient than going to the police station."

He added that the website provides more extensive information than is available at local law enforcement agencies.

"Even when citizens visited their local police stations, they were only given limited information," Swaringen said. "They couldn't get the street number, only the zip code."

He also noted that, in addition to monitoring registered sex offenders, the San Jose Police Department also notifies residents who live within a half-mile radius of sex offenders classified as high-risk, or individuals who have a history of violent behavior.

But according to Swaringen, not everyone is pleased with the information available on the Megan's Law website. He said that his department had received some complaints from sex offenders who were upset that their personal information was accessible online.

"Some insisted that they had committed the crime several years ago, that they had been in compliance with registration requirements and had stopped committing crimes," he said. "I can see their point, but they have to realize that the public has the right to know. We don't have the luxury of saying they will never do these crimes again."

Enacted in 1996, Megan's Law was named after seven-year-old New Jersey resident Megan Kanka, who was raped and killed by a known child molester. The neighbor lived across the street from Megan's home without her family's knowledge. The law requires information of individuals who are convicted of specified sex crimes to be released to the public.

To access the state's new Megan's Law website go to http://www.meganslaw.ca.gov.