W.Va. State Police receive grant to develop sex offender mapping program

The West Virginia State Police received a $30,000 grant to develop a sex offender mapping program.

The agency said the project will provide troopers a quick method to identify all sex offenders within a given region by making inquiries to the mapping system. Currently, troopers have to manually search sex offender files on detachments that are maintained in an alphabetical order.

Police say the mapping system will save time in investigations of child abductions because one of the first steps taken is to locate convicted sex offenders living nearby. The system is expected to be ready by July.

The grant was provided by the West Virginia Technical Assistance Broad Band Grant Program.