OffenderWatch has been awarded a Top Workplaces 2021 honor by New Orleans Top Workplaces, two years running. The list is based solely on employee feedback gathered through a third-party survey administered by employee engagement technology partner Energage LLC. The anonymous survey uniquely measures 15 culture drivers that are critical to the success of any organization: including alignment, execution, and connection, just to name a few.OffenderWatch was founded 21 years ago in Covington with a small office of four individuals and has grown into a company with nearly 50 employees.“I am very proud and thrilled that our company received this award,” said Ben Luzynski, OffenderWatch CEO. “The management team constantly collaborates on ways to improve our work environment, but the most valuable feedback comes from our employees. To ensure the success of our 14,000 users and thousands of agencies across our national U.S. network, Canada and the Caribbean, we have to maintain a high level of service. Our team is passionate about our mission and works hard to help law enforcement prevent the unthinkable.”"During this very challenging time, Top Workplaces has proven to be a beacon of light for organizations, as well as a sign of resiliency and strong business performance," said Eric Rubino, Energage CEO. "When you give your employees a voice, you come together to navigate challenges and shape your path forward. Top Workplaces draw on real-time insights into what works best for their organization, so they can make informed decisions that have a positive impact on their people and their business."

ARIMA, Trinidad and Tobago (Sept. 15, 2020)—OffenderWatch, the leading sex offender registry management solution, and the Caribbean Committee Against Sex Crimes (CCASC), an initiative of nonprofit Zandoli USA, today announced a joint mission to implement sex offender registries across the 15 nations of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). The sex offender registries would help fight the global crisis of sex crimes—many against children. Law enforcement worldwide would benefit from sex offender registries in CARICOM nations as it would assist in international investigations and hopefully prevent future sex crimes. OffenderWatch and Zandoli USA signed a Memorandum of Understanding that seeks to track sex offenders throughout the Caribbean and eventually across the world.CCASC works with non-profit and governmental agencies across CARICOM. All 15 CARICOM nations are at varying stages of implementing sex offender registration with Jamaica, Belize, and Trinidad and Tobago already having laws on the books.The partners envision legislative change to implement a global sex offender registration system linking law enforcement agencies worldwide through a common database application. The objective will be to reduce child sex trafficking globally by facilitating international cooperation to track registered sex offenders as they move or travel from one country to another.Nearly 18.5 million people live in the CARICOM states. Sex Crime is endemic in the Caribbean region, which has been recognized by the United Nations as one of the regions with the highest rates of sex crime globally.The Memorandum of Understanding was signed this year by OffenderWatch President Mike Cormaci, Zandoli USA’s founder, Camille St. Omer and the Chairman of the Caribbean Committee against Sex Crimes, Jonathan Bhagan. CCAC was founded by Camille St. Omer, also vice chair, and includes Gina Maharaj Attorney at Law as vice chair.The first step of the proposed project is to approach the Government of Trinidad and Tobago to initiate a pilot project establishing the country’s first operational Sex Offender Registry using technology provided by OffenderWatch.Trinidad and Tobago became the smallest country in the world to pass a public sex offender’s registry law on September 13, 2019. Judges will have the discretion to choose which offenders undergo public registration.The partnership between OffenderWatch and Zandoli USA, named “Operation Global Sex Offender’s Registry,” was inspired by the Angel Watch Center which monitors sex offenders attempting to enter or exit the United States. The Angel Watch Center was created by the passage of International Megan’s Law (IML) in the United States.Operation Global Sex Offender’s Registry is designed to enhance the effectiveness of the US International Megan’s Law to End Child Sex Trafficking (HR 515) by implementing similar policies and software in partner countries.It is expected that law enforcement worldwide will benefit in many ways from a global sex offender registration network. There is huge potential for big data, predictive policing and AI algorithms to find new ways to prevent sex crime. The primary reason behind offenders entering a country and not registering is because the country of origin lacked an ability to notify a new country of the offender’s intention to move. The new program by OffenderWatch instantly executes a notification upon entering the address of where an offender intends to travel or relocate to.On September 28, 2019 a New York Times investigative report showed there is more child pornography being detected on the internet than ever before in history. OffenderWatch and Zandoli USA believe that Operation Global Sex Offender’s Registry is part of the solution to the epidemic of child abuse imagery. Much of this imagery is produced by child sex offenders who travel abroad for the purpose of accessing vulnerable children.As part of the Memorandum of Understanding, a research paper will be produced to show the effectiveness of OffenderWatch’s software in deterring sex crimes. Special focus will be given to the International Megan’s Law to end Child Sex Trafficking, as well as the Angel Watch Center on how these measures have provided deterrence to sex offenders crossing borders.Some countries in the Caribbean do not have rape crisis shelters or proper mechanisms in place to help survivors of sexual assault report the crimes to the police and recover. Once sufficient funding is available, Operation Global Sex Offender’s Registry will aid Caribbean charities which assist survivors of sexual assault.“Given the recent economic impact of Covid-19 on the tourism-dependent economies of CARICOM, I hope that international sponsors can fund our efforts to implement cutting-edge software in the Caribbean region. A recent CARICOM study by Dr. Justine Pierre revealed how widespread Human Trafficking is in our region. We will need funding from the United States, European Union and United Kingdom for our work and for other groups fighting against sex crime and Human Trafficking in the Caribbean,” said Jonathan Bhagan, Chairman of the Caribbean Committee Against Sex Crimes.Sponsorship will be sought from governments and corporations willing to contribute towards the goal of preventing child sex trafficking and exploitation. Any government agency or corporation interested in partnering with Operation Global Sex Offender’s Registry is invited to contact globalsexoffenderregistry@gmail.com for more information.OffenderWatch is the nation's leading sex offender registration solution, with over 15,000 users at law enforcement agencies in 50 states using the technology. Local, state and federal agencies use the software to monitor offenders, communicate with other registering agencies, and immediately update the sex offender registry website and notify the community within a radius of the offender’s address. With each edit of the offender record, the OffenderWatch system automatically updates the department's sex offender listings on the department’s website and sends email notifications to the public.“We believe data shared between law enforcement agencies and countries leads to better compliance, more effective investigations and ultimately safer cities and neighborhoods,” said Mike Cormaci, President and co-founder of OffenderWatch. “When all of the countries of the Caribbean join our network, OffenderWatch will have 100% of the homes in the Caribbean covered by our reach. OffenderWatch supports more than just the legal requirements of a sex offender registry. Through improved timeliness, accuracy, and completeness, it supports the intent of the law: improved public safety through awareness—hopefully leading to fewer victims.”There are more than 900,000 registered sex offenders in the United States, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. However, agencies and countries often use disparate systems for managing sex offenders. These systems can falter when offenders move from one agency to another or from one country to another (unconnected) jurisdiction, as it falls to the offender to notify the new agency by showing up at their offices to register. This can be an opportunity for an offender to “fall through the cracks” of the registry. OffenderWatch prevents this by automatically notifying and sharing records with destination agencies within the network. All relevant data from all sources and agencies is maintained in a single offender record, improving accuracy, offender accountability, and aiding in public safety.OffenderWatch will also allow local agencies to easily send real-time alerts to the public when a registered sex offender moves into their neighborhood. The service is available at no cost to the public, and people can sign up to receive email or mail notifications associated with any address-at home, school, work, gym, day care, a park, or more.As this collaboration with 15 networked countries of the Caribbean improves and streamlines offender management and public awareness, safety in the community is also enhanced, “With the OffenderWatch technologies, CARICOM governments will be able to focus more on protecting the public and less on time-consuming administrative work,” said Camille St. Omer and Jonathan Bhagan of the CCASC.Using OffenderWatch, all the countries of the Caribbean can instantly share records with each other and any other registering agency in the OffenderWatch within the network. Instead of spending hours researching each new offender and locating old court and registration documents, any country can instantly obtain the full historical record of the offender, packed with related documents and images. This information is vital as registry officers can collaborate with other agencies on child abductions and investigations of absconded offenders. OffenderWatch also connects the agency to improve collaboration with other investigators, all enhancing public safety. Additionally, residents of the Caribbean will have access through websites to search the full Caribbean OffenderWatch network for information on offenders to get the information they need to help keep their families safe in their physical as well as online activities.In today’s environment of ubiquitous technology, law enforcement must also focus on online safety. According to Camille and Jonathan of CCASC, “Sexual predators are unfortunately becoming an increased threat online, especially as kids are on the web more at home while sheltering in place. With a Global Sex Offender’s Registry system police in Trinidad can notify law enforcement in the United States if a Sex Offender resident in the USA is soliciting children in Trinidad in person or online. The end result is improved safety.”According to UNICEF an estimated 223 million children, 10 percent of the world's children, have been sexually assaulted; this includes 150 million girls and 73 million boys. Two million children are victims of sex trafficking or pornography.In 2019, there were more than 45 million images of children being sexually abused online, according to an investigation by the New York Times. Plus, tips reporting online child exploitation to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children more than doubled from March 2019 to March 2020. Through the OffenderWatch partnership, CCASC will advocate for CARICOM to be the first group of countries to offer OffenderWatch Safe Virtual Neighborhood (SVN), an app coming soon after the countries fully deploy and integrate within the network, that will proactively alert parents to online contact from registered sex offenders. While registered offenders are required to provide their electronic communications identifiers to be included in the sex offender registry database, this information is non-published, so is generally not available to the public. SVN continually monitors and compares users’ online contacts vs. this non-public data (email address, phone numbers, and registered online user ID’s) and alerts subscribers such as parents to contact law enforcement if a match is identified. Additionally, SVN issues an alert for when a users’ static physical location is an address matching that of a sex offender. This breakthrough technology helps keep kids safe by alerting parents of attempts by an offender in the network to electronically communicate with or lure a child.The partnership of CCASC and the OffenderWatch network of agencies streamlines the Sex Offender Registry process, improves community awareness, and supports the efforts of the countries of the Caribbean to continuously improve public safety. To learn more about OffenderWatch and sign up for email alerts on offenders, visit www.offenderwatch.com.

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ABOUT OFFENDERWATCHThere are nearly 900,000 registered sex offenders in the United States. Many states have different systems for tracking these offenders, making it difficult for agencies to update records when offenders cross state lines. OffenderWatch works with law enforcement agencies to provide registry software and tools to easily communicate information to the public. Founded in 2000 in Covington, La. under the Watch Systems company, OffenderWatch provides a variety services to sheriffs’ offices, police departments, Attorney Generals’ offices, U.S. Marshal judicial districts, U.S. attorneys, federal and state probation and parole agents, department of corrections, Indian tribes, and more. In 2018, OffenderWatch partnered with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Canada to manage the Canadian National Sex Offender Registry. In 2019, OffenderWatch launched a new, groundbreaking technology, OffenderWatch Safe Virtual Neighborhood. The mobile app identifies online contact from registered sex offenders through a child’s smartphone device, instantly alerting parents to the communication. Learn more at OffenderWatch.com.ABOUT CARIBBEAN COMMITTEE AGAINST SEX CRIMES & ZANDOLI USAThe Caribbean Committee Against Sex Crimes is an Initiative of Zandoli USA. It has advocated regionally for Sex Offender Registration and for all Caribbean governments to ensure that survivors of sex crimes are offered the support and rehabilitation that they need. The Caribbean Committee Against Sex Crimes is led by Chairman, Jonathan Bhagan and Vice-Chairperson, Gina Maharaj.

Houston PD Can Now Easily Share Data, Collaborate on Investigations with Harris County Sheriff’s Office & Other States

COVINGTON, La. (Sept. 2, 2020)—The Houston Police Department is the 34th major city in the U.S. to join the nationwide OffenderWatch sex offender registry network, adding more than 6,000 sex offender records to the database. By partnering with OffenderWatch, Houston PD will now be able to easily collaborate on investigations and share critical information involving registered sex offenders with not only the Harris County Sheriff's Office, but also with more than 3,000 other local law enforcement agencies across the country. Houston PD monitors more than 6,000 registered sex offenders.“When a registered offender moves from outside the city of Houston in Harris County to a city of Houston address, now registering officers won't have to spend time reentering data-because the offender record is seamlessly shared from one agency to another. All records in OffenderWatch transfer instantly to the new jurisdiction, saving us time and improving data accuracy,” said Chief of Police Art Acevedo. “With thousands of sex offenders moving in and out of the city and state every year, the new technology can save us time and improve our investigations by searching other agencies files.”**Houston residents can search for sex offenders or sign up for email alerts on the Houston PD website: https://www.houstontx.gov/police/sex_offender_databases/index.htm**OffenderWatch is the nation's leading sex offender registration solution, with law enforcement agencies in 37 states using the technology and over 15,000 users. Local and state agencies use the software to monitor offenders, communicate with other agency personnel and execute instant community notifications based on a radial address.It is estimated that by using OffenderWatch, the Houston PD can save more than 2,000 officer hours by instantly sharing records with Harris County and other registering agencies in the metro area. Houston PD will be able to collaborate in real time with other agencies on investigations and offender record details. The system will also automatically update the department's sex offender listings on the website and send email notifications to the public. OffenderWatch also allows the agency to better collaborate on investigations with the U.S. Marshals, Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) teams and other investigators.“We believe data shared between law enforcement agencies leads to better investigations and safer cities and counties,” said Mike Cormaci, president and co-founder of OffenderWatch. “With Houston joining our network, OffenderWatch now has more than 50 percent of the nation's children covered by our reach—hopefully leading to fewer victims.”There are more than 900,000 registered sex offenders in the United States, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. However, agencies often use disparate systems for managing sex offenders. OffenderWatch allows different law enforcement agencies to collaborate on a single offender record, improving accuracy and aiding in public safety.OffenderWatch will also allow local agencies to easily send real-time alerts to the public when a registered sex offender moves into their neighborhood. The service is available at no cost to the public, and people can sign up to receive email or mail notifications associated with any address-at home, school, work, gym, day care, a park, or more.

New Orleans, June 28, 2020. The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate has identified 70 private, public, nonprofit and government entities as the top workplaces in the New Orleans area for 2020.The workplaces rose to the top in the newspaper’s annual Top Workplaces in New Orleans competition. The rankings of the companies will be announced at an awards ceremony to be held later this year.Through a partnership with the Philadelphia-based employee research and consulting firm Energage, employee surveys were conducted to assess outstanding workplaces. Any organization in the seven-parish metro area with 35 or more employees was eligible to compete.“During this challenging time, we are excited to highlight standout job providers,” said Sara Barnard, The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate’s senior vice president of sales and marketing. “This will be the sixth year New Orleans has observed elite companies in our community that have been named a Top Workplace and we are honored to join in the celebration.”The workplaces will also be recognized in stories in a special newspaper section to be printed and distributed later this year.

There are about 7,000 registered sex offenders living in Maryland, many of whom have been convicted of crimes against children. All law enforcement agencies in the state of Maryland recently implemented a new technical system called OffenderWatch that completely integrates every agency into a network of 15,000 users who oversee 600,000 registered sex offenders. In addition to the network, the software helps each user streamline processes to improve the state’s sex offender registry.By using the OffenderWatch network, Maryland agencies moved away from using separate, stand-alone data systems for managing sex offender information to collaborating with the nation’s leading sex offender registry network of enforcement agencies. Collaboration on a single offender record has been proven to be the single most efficient way of tracking offenders as they move from one jurisdiction to another. As a member of the OffenderWatch network, Maryland agencies have seamless, real-time communication on offender relocations and with access to the nationwide database of sex offender records, improving efficiency, timeliness, and accuracy of the sex offender registry is instantly realized.OffenderWatch is the nation's leading sex offender registration solution, with more than 15,000 users at law enforcement agencies in 50 states using the technology. Local, state and federal agencies use the network to monitor sex offenders, communicate with other registering agencies, immediately update the sex offender registry website, and notify the community within a radius of the offender’s address. With each edit of the offender record, the OffenderWatch system automatically updates the department's sex offender listings on the department’s website and sends email notifications to the public.“We believe it’s critical for law enforcement agencies to share important data for multiple reasons: better compliance, more effective investigations and ultimately safer cities and neighborhoods,” said Mike Cormaci, president and co-founder of OffenderWatch. “OffenderWatch makes sharing that data extremely easy, improving accuracy in the offender records and saving time in investigations when minutes and hours can mean the difference between life and death.”There are more than 900,000 registered sex offenders in the United States, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. However, agencies often use disparate systems for managing sex offenders. These systems can falter when offenders move from one agency to another jurisdiction, as the offender must notify the new agency by showing up at their office to register. This can be an opportunity for an offender to “fall through the cracks” of the registry. OffenderWatch prevents this by automatically notifying and sharing records with destination agencies within the network. All relevant data from sources and agencies is maintained in a single offender record, improving accuracy, offender accountability, and aiding in public safety.OffenderWatch also allows local Maryland agencies to easily send real-time alerts to the public when a registered sex offender moves into their neighborhood. The service is available at no cost to the public, and people can sign up to receive email or mail notifications associated with any address—at home, school, work, gym, daycare, a park, or more.OffenderWatch also helps enhance community safety, as a collaboration with 3,500 networked agencies improves and streamlines offender management and public awareness. Using OffenderWatch, Maryland can instantly share records any other registering agency in the OffenderWatch national network. Instead of spending hours researching each new offender and locating old court and registration documents, Maryland agencies instantly obtain the full historical record of the offender, packed with related documents and images. This information is vital as registry officers can collaborate with other agencies on child abductions and investigations of absconded offenders.OffenderWatch also connects the agency to improve collaboration with the U.S. Marshals, Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) teams and other investigators, all enhancing public safety. Additionally, residents will have access through the DPSCS website to search the full nationwide OffenderWatch network for information on offenders to get the information they need to help keep their families safe in their physical, as well as online.Sign up for free alerts when a registered sex offender moves into your neighborhood on the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services website: http://www.socem.info/.