You deserve to know if there is someone potentially dangerous living near you. That's one reason why there is a safe way to officially find out if your neighbor in Illinois is a past sex offender.

There are some important things to note before I share this tool that the Illinois State Police make available to you to learn if you live near a registered sex offender. First, it is illegal to harass anyone you find on their list. That breaks Illinois law and will almost certainly bring you trouble. Second the Illinois State Police emphasize that a persons inclusion on this list does not infer that they will commit any crimes in the future.

Here is the tool that the Illinois State Police make available to you. It's the official state sex offender registry and there are several ways to use it. This is the portal you'll see on their site that allows you to search for the name of a certain person.

Illinois State Police
Illinois State Police
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There's another way you can search your specific Illinois area or neighborhood. You can enter your address and it will tell you what registered sex offenders live within a 5 mile radius of you. As an example, I entered our radio station address in Quincy, Illinois and this is the map that came up.

Illinois State Police
Illinois State Police
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That's a lot of red dots. Again, and I cannot emphasize this enough, you are not allowed to use this tool to become a vigilante and harass anyone. It's simply intended to give you detailed information on past sex crime offenders in Illinois that live near you.

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Gallery Credit: Illinois Department of Corrections

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