The Computer Revolution/Databases/Indexing

As part of the Information and Identification Services department of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, CCRIS manages the Central Repository of criminal records information.

CCRIS manages criminal record files consisting of criminal charges and their dispositions, including convictions and discharges and fingerprint information. In addition, CCRIS manages the Missing Children's Registry and assists law enforcement agencies in matters involving missing children.

Shared databases across Canada have made law enforcement much easier than prior to having such databases/directories. Provincial law enforcement agencies can easily assist other provinces with solving crimes, locating people etc...due to the large database containing criminal records.

Family Watch Dog

Family Watch Dog is one example of a criminal database and it is a national sex offender registry. There are laws in our country which make it mandatory for anyone convicted of a crime which falls into the sex offender category to register as a sex offender and they are then entered into this database. Anyone can log onto this website and look up their address, or any address in American they desire, and see all of the registered sex offenders who are living around that area. It is a very useful tool, especially for families with young children, when deciding what area they should move to and just to keep tabs on their neighborhood. For the picture below: After inputting an address, a map will show up with little indicators where all the sex offenders are located. By clicking on those indicators, you can find the picture of the offender along with information about him and his crime.

NSOPW-National Sex Offender Public Website - http://www.nsopw.gov/en-US/Registry

The NSOPW website is a national database which allows public searches for sex offenders. This website searches all jurisdictions in real time, meaning the list of offenders is updated constantly, and when the website is searched, it returns the most up to date information. What makes this website different than other database websites is that it acts like a search engine culling data from other states’ and Native American tribal sex offender websites. The NSOPW website can be used by prospective home buyers to see if there are any sex offenders in the neighborhood they would like to buy a house. The website can also be used by employers to see if job applicants have any history of sex crimes.