Sex offender registries vary in speed, accuracy, ease of use

The modern age of technology has spawned a tool many law enforcement agencies and safety advocacy groups rely on -- the online sex registry.

At the national, state, county and local levels there are thousands such registries throughout much of the English-speaking world, though not in non-English countries.

And the United States is the only place in the world where such information is public.

For Green Country residents, a number of options exist for checking the neighborhood for registered offenders (see partial list below).

Still, knowing an offender might live in the neighborhood doesn't really do much to protect children, and many offenders find ways to defeat the registries by moving, registering under fake addresses, et cetera.

Here are some of the registries:

• Tulsa County Sheriff's Office
• Tulsa Police Department
• State of Oklahoma
• National Sex Offender Registry
• City-Data website
• Homefacts website
• Family Watchdog website