Searching NSOPW vs searching here.
Public search sites are built for one person checking one name. Screening as an organisation needs more: a stored audit trail, precise narrowing, whole lists at once, teammates — and an API when you are ready. That is what this is.
The same question, answered two ways
| What you need | A public search site | Offendersearch |
|---|---|---|
| Keeping a record of the check | Nothing is saved. If a decision is questioned later, there is no record of what you searched or what you saw. | Every search is stored with the results you were shown — who, when, and what came back. An audit trail by default. |
| Narrowing to the right person | Name-oriented search, with limited ways to separate two people who share one. | Name plus date of birth, age give-or-take, city, ZIP, street address and free text — with misspellings and nicknames matched for you. |
| A clear verdict | A list of results to interpret yourself. | A plain answer — “No match found” after every registry was searched, or “3 possible matches to review” — with why each record matched, in words. |
| Screening more than one person | One name at a time, retyped by one person. | Upload a CSV and screen a whole list at once; every row comes back clear or review. Add teammates so the work is shared. |
| Putting it in your own system | No integration path for your product or workflow. | A full enterprise-grade API: the same nationwide search as one call, with scored records, batch, async and webhooks. |
| Depth of each record | What the public page chooses to display. | The richest schema in the category — photographs, aliases, typed addresses, statute-level offense history, physical description and housing status — with the official record linked from every result. |
NSOPW alternative questions
What is NSOPW?
NSOPW is the US government’s public website for searching sex offender registries. It is a public service built for individual, one-at-a-time lookups by members of the public.
Why use Offendersearch instead of a public search site?
Because organisations need what a public website does not do: a stored, defensible record of every check, precise narrowing when two people share a name, screening whole lists at once, teammates on one account, and an API when screening belongs inside your own system. One search here covers 100% of US registries — all 50 states, DC and the territories — and tells you in plain words whether the search was complete.
Is there an NSOPW API?
NSOPW does not offer a public API for building screening into your own product. Offendersearch is built exactly for that: one authenticated call searches every US registry and returns scored, source-cited records, with batch, async and webhook options — and a no-code dashboard for the rest of your team.
What does Offendersearch cost?
Your first 25 searches are free with no card. After that it is $0.15 a search, dropping to $0.11 past 2,000 in a month — no seats, no minimum, no contract negotiation.
Can results be used for hiring or housing decisions?
Offendersearch is not a consumer reporting agency and results are not a consumer report, so they must not be used for FCRA-covered decisions without appropriate process. Use is subject to our acceptable-use terms and applicable law.
Screen like an organisation, not a browser tab
One search, every US registry, on the record. 25 free searches to see the difference on a name you know.