There are 968 sex offenders living in North Dakota, including high-, moderate- and low-risk offenders and offenders who are delinquent in complying with registration, Stenejhem said.

The address for the Web site, www.sexoffender.nd.gov, will stay the same. But many of the site's features have been updated or simplified by new software, Stenehjem said.

"We are closing in on … about a million individuals who have been to our Web site," he said.

One improved feature gives users the ability to find "Offenders Near Me." Users enter an address, and a list of high-risk and lifetime sex offenders appears.

From that list, users can choose to view a map with yellow push pins indicating where sex offenders in the area reside. Green push pins indicate where incarcerated offenders are being held.

As a user runs the cursor over the push pin indicators, a bubble with an offender's name and address, and a link to his or her information page pops up.

"This map is really a pretty nifty deal," Stenehjem said.

He said the old version of the Web site offered a link to a private site that would map offenders' locations. The map available on this site will be updated more often and be easier to use, Stenehjem said.

A printed list of all low- and moderate-risk offenders can also be obtained on the site, he said.

People who sign up for e-mail alerts about sex offenders will now get direct links in e-mails taking them straight to the requested page, Stenehjem said. Before, the e-mails only told users about updated information, and they then had to find more information for themselves.

The total cost of improving the Web site was $56,000.

The North Dakota site contains a link to a national sex offender registry that was created after the abduction of University of North Dakota student Dru Sjodin, said Assistant Attorney General Jon Byers.

"Before the Dru Sjodin case, if you wanted to look for an offender, you had to look state by state," Byers said.

Chief Deb Ness of the Bismarck Police Department said the new Web site would save the department time because people are now able to find information about offenders themselves.

Ness said the site is also used by officers who need information about offenders in the area during investigations.

Law enforcement officers are also responsible for notifying victims of the whereabouts of offenders, Ness said.

"That's a responsibility that we find almost impossible to meet" because of the number of offenders and victims, she said.

Now, the Web site will make that much quicker and easier, she said.

Bismarck police Lt. Randy Ziegler, who is a member of the department's sex offender containment group, said another advantage of the updated site is that a list of offenders matching a given description can be obtained.

The descriptions can help officers find offenders matching a suspect's description in the area, Ziegler said.

He said the site is also more user-friendly than the old version, which helps average people navigate it.

Stenehjem said the site was tested by people in his office, as well as their friends and family, to ensure that it was easy to use.

The Web site contains disclaimers warning users against using the information on the site to harass or bother offenders. Offenders living in the community have served their sentence and are not wanted by law enforcement, Stenehjem said.

Ziegler said he has not heard of any instances of people using the information to harass registered offenders.

Stenehjem said there have been isolated cases of such problems in other parts of the country.

Stenehjem said courts have repeatedly upheld the legality of such registries. Having conviction information readily available to the public is not considered further punishment for offenders, he said.

"The public can take any action that they feel is legally necessary to protect themselves and their families," he said.

"North Dakota is ahead of the curve rather than behind the times," Stenehjem said. "We will always be looking for ways to improve the Web site."

(Reach reporter Jenny Michael at 250-8225 or jenny.michael@bismarcktribune.com.)