Frequently asked questions
Is this an official government website?
No. TX Offender Map is an independent, unofficial project. It is not affiliated with, and is not endorsed by, the Texas Department of Public Safety (TxDPS) or any other state agency. See About & Data Sources.
Where does the data come from?
Offender records come from the Texas Sex Offender and Public Protection Registry, published by the TxDPS. School locations come from public and charter school directories. Full details are on the About page.
How often is the site updated?
The full site is rebuilt from the registry weekly. Street-address and ZIP-centroid geocoding is refreshed incrementally during scheduled builds. The current snapshot time is shown on the home page and on every county page.
Why does a map pin look like it's in the wrong spot?
A usable registered address receives a validated street-address geocode when it can be matched, or a ZIP centroid fallback when it cannot. Both are approximate: street-address coordinates are interpolated along an address range, not verified rooftop or GPS locations. Administrative, transient, unknown, and out-of-state placeholder addresses are not mapped.
Is "within 3 miles" a driving distance?
No. Distances on school pages are straight-line (great-circle) distance from the school, not driving distance, and are limited to a 3-mile radius.
Someone I expected to see isn't listed, or someone disappeared. Why?
This site only reproduces what's in the official registry at the time of the weekly rebuild. Registrations end, addresses change, and records are added or removed on the state's own schedule, not this site's.
Can I get an entry removed or corrected?
This site cannot alter official registry records. For a correction to an official registration, or for the authoritative record on any individual, use the official TxDPS registry directly. If the error is specific to this website (a wrong map pin, a broken page), use the Contact page.
Can I download or reuse this data?
The underlying records are public information published by the state. For bulk data or research use, the authoritative source is the official TxDPS registry; please review its terms before republishing.
Glossary
Registered address
The address an individual has reported to the registry, as required by law. It may not reflect where someone is physically present at any given moment.
Primary offense
The offense description shown for an offender, as published in the registry record. It may be one of several qualifying offenses associated with the registration.
ZIP centroid
The approximate geographic center of a ZIP code area, used as a fallback map location when a specific street address cannot be geocoded.
Snapshot
The full set of registry and school data as it existed at the time of a given weekly rebuild. Every page on this site reflects a specific snapshot, dated at the top of the home page.