# Location monitoring

> Watch a radius around an address and be alerted as matching records move in or out. Live for sex-offender records; criminal-record location watches are coming.

- **HTML:** https://offendersearch.app/docs/monitoring/location-monitoring
- **Base URL:** https://api.offendersearch.app
- **Authentication:** `X-API-Key` request header
- **OpenAPI:** https://offendersearch.app/openapi.json · https://offendersearch.app/openapi.yaml
- **Monitoring reference as markdown:** https://offendersearch.app/docs/monitoring.md

## Watch a radius around an address

A location monitor stands watch over a place rather than a person. You give it an address (or coordinates) and a radius, and each day it evaluates which matching records fall inside that radius — alerting you as records move **in** (`new`), change while inside it (`changed`), or move **out** or come off a registry (`removed`).

```json
{
  "product": "sex-offender",
  "type": "location",
  "location": { "address": "100 Main St, Austin, TX 78701", "radiusMiles": 1 },
  "channels": { "email": "alerts@example.com" }
}
```

You can specify the centre either as an `address` string or as explicit `lat`/`lng` coordinates. `radiusMiles` is required.

```json
{
  "product": "sex-offender",
  "type": "location",
  "location": { "lat": 30.2711, "lng": -97.7437, "radiusMiles": 2 },
  "channels": { "email": "alerts@example.com", "webhookUrl": "https://example.com/hooks/os" }
}
```

## Coverage

| `product` | `type: "location"` |
| --- | --- |
| `sex-offender` | **Live.** Sex-offender location monitoring is available today. |
| `criminal` | **Coming soon.** See below. |

## Criminal location monitoring is coming soon

Criminal-record location monitoring will arrive **as location coverage across criminal records expands**. It is documented here so you can plan for it, but it is not billable yet. A `POST /v1/monitors` with `product: "criminal"` and `type: "location"` does not error — it returns a `not_yet_available` acknowledgement, so your integration can handle the transition without special-casing an error path.

```json
// POST /v1/monitors  {"product":"criminal","type":"location", …}
{
  "status": "not_yet_available",
  "product": "criminal",
  "type": "location",
  "message": "criminal location monitoring is coming soon; no monitor was created and nothing was billed"
}
```

> The response is a `200` acknowledgement, not a `4xx`. No monitor is created and nothing is billed. Treat `status: "not_yet_available"` as a signal to hold that watch until the product is live.

## The address you register

The centre of a location monitor is the subscriber’s own input. It is stored **encrypted**, isolated to your account, and audit-logged, and it is used for one purpose only: to evaluate proximity each day. See [Access, keys & data handling](https://offendersearch.app/docs/monitoring/authentication.md).

## Not a consumer report

A location monitor’s alerts are not a consumer report and may not be used for any FCRA-covered decision. The notice — *Not a consumer report. This information may not be used for any purpose under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq.).* — accompanies every alert.

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## Related

- Previous: [Person monitoring](https://offendersearch.app/docs/monitoring/person-monitoring.md)
- Next: [Alerts, events & cadence](https://offendersearch.app/docs/monitoring/alerts.md)
- Index: [Monitoring API reference](https://offendersearch.app/docs/monitoring.md)