How the Sex Offender Registry Works in the District of Columbia

The Metropolitan Police Department registry page starts with the statute: the Sex Offender Registration Act of 1999 established a sex offender registration programme for the District of Columbia and authorises the police department to release sex offender information to the public. A list of Class A and Class B registered sex offenders is provided on the website as a service to the community, and the public may review the entire sex offender registry by visiting one of the police districts or the Sex Offender Registry Unit, which moved on October 16, 2023 to 441 4th Street NW, Room 550 South, Washington, DC 20001, (202) 727-4407. Four cautions sit on the page. Address information is given at the block level only, with no specific addresses, so it may look as though several offenders live at one address when they do not. The information is information of record and may not reflect the registrant's current residence, place of employment, school or status. Unless the entry specifically says so, a listed person is not wanted by the police. And unlawful use of the information to threaten, intimidate, harass or injure a registered sex offender will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, a warning the District repeats wherever the registry appears.

Behind the police website sits a machinery of agencies that the act itself sets out, and it is unlike any state arrangement. The act authorises the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency for the District of Columbia to create and maintain the registry; requires the Superior Court to issue orders certifying that a person is a sex offender and establishes a dispute resolution procedure for challenging a registration requirement; requires the Department of Corrections to tell the agency when a sex offender may be released to the community or a halfway house; requires the mental health service to tell the agency about leave privileges or other status changes for sex offenders in its custody; lets the agency adopt the procedures for registration, for verifying registration information and for reporting changes of address; authorises the police department to release sex offender information and to notify agencies and people of where offenders are in the District; provides for interagency coordination; gives the District and the United States and their agencies, officials and employees immunity for acts and omissions under the act; exempts non public sex offender information from Freedom of Information Act disclosure; imposes the reporting and registration duties and the monetary and imprisonment penalties on offenders; and repealed the earlier Sex Offender Registration Act of 1996. The police districts where the complete registry can be read are on the District of Columbia pages.

  • Search: the police department website for Class A and Class B registrants, with addresses at block level only; the complete Class A, B and C registry is read in person at any police district or at the Sex Offender Registry Unit.
  • Who registers: a person convicted, or found not guilty by reason of insanity, of a registration required offence who lives, works or attends school in the District, the offences being generally felony sexual assault whatever the victim's age, offences involving the sexual abuse or exploitation of minors, and the sexual abuse of wards, patients or clients.
  • Who does the work: the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency completes the initial registration and maintains the registry, the Superior Court certifies offenders and hears disputes, the corrections department and the forensic and mental health unit report releases, and the police department releases the information.
  • Penalty: failure to register is a crime, a misdemeanour on a first conviction and a felony on a second.

Written by SearchSystems.net from District of Columbia's own systems: the Metropolitan Police Department sex offender registry page, the department's sex offender registration frequently asked questions, the department's page on the Sex Offender Registry Act of 1999, each read on October 14, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.

Who must register, and who registers them

The registration questions page explains that the law requires a person convicted, or found not guilty by reason of insanity, of a registration required offence to register with the District provided the person lives, works or attends school there. Generally speaking, it says, an offence requiring registration is a felony sexual assault, regardless of the age of the victim, an offence involving the sexual abuse or exploitation of minors, or the sexual abuse of wards, patients or clients.

The initial registration is completed by the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency, and other District agencies have their own duty to notify either that agency or the police department about sex offenders, among them the Department of Corrections, the forensic and mental health unit at St. Elizabeths Hospital and the District of Columbia Superior Court. One group falls outside the system entirely: convicted sex offenders who had finished their sentences and were completely out of the criminal justice system when the Sex Offender Registration Act took effect are generally not required to register, and people who committed a sex offence but were never caught or convicted are not required to register either, so neither group appears on the website or at the police stations.

The definitions in the DC Code, the department adds, will not always match the offence named in a registrant's conviction, because the person may have been convicted in another state or under a law since repealed.

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The three classes, and what the website shows

Sex offenders in the District are classified as A, B or C offenders. The police website lists Class A and Class B offenders only, while a member of the community may visit any police station and inspect a public registry holding current information on all registered sex offenders in the District, the department publishing the list of locations that keep the complete Class A, B and C record. The questions page explains what that split means in substance: the website includes information about people convicted or found not guilty by reason of insanity of the most serious sex offences, of more than one sex offence, of a sex offence against a minor, meaning someone under 18, or of a sex offence against a ward or patient, as well as people who have been determined to be sexual psychopaths, while information on people who committed other sex offences for which they must register is available at police stations.

Beyond that, the registry gives a registrant's residence, business or school address and the offence of conviction that required the registration, with the website keeping addresses at block level.

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Community notification, and its limits

Community notification, as the department defines it, means giving the community information about convicted sex offenders who have been placed on probation or parole or released from jail or prison and are now living, working or attending school there, so that people can make appropriate decisions about whether to associate with them or entrust children to them. New registrants are announced at the regular police service area, citizens advisory council and advisory neighborhood commission meetings in each district, the open registry at any police district can be checked at any time, and the website is updated when the department learns of new or additional information.

The department is equally clear about what notification is not. It has no authority to direct where a sex offender may live, work or attend school, and unless the courts have placed specific restrictions on the release, the offender has the right to live wherever the offender chooses; most offenders return to the area where they lived before the conviction, and some are released to another jurisdiction for treatment, to be near family or to work.

Nor may the community act on the information: no one should confront or harass a registrant, the act emphasises that anyone who uses the registry to commit a crime against a sex offender will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, and while a person receiving the information may pass it on at their discretion, it may not be used to commit a crime against a listed person or to engage in illegal discrimination or harassment.

The purpose, the department writes, is not to punish or stigmatise sex offenders but to provide factual information so that adults can make better informed decisions about whom they associate with and whom they trust with their children.

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Failing to register

Failure to register is a crime in the District: a first violation conviction is a misdemeanour and a conviction for a second violation is a felony. The act behind those penalties also imposes the reporting and registration duties themselves, provides immunity for the District and the United States and their agencies, officials and employees for actions or omissions taken under it, and exempts non public sex offender information from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, so the material held beyond the public registry stays closed.

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Reading a District of Columbia result

An entry on the police website is a Class A or Class B registrant, meaning the most serious offences, multiple offences, offences against a minor, a ward or a patient, or a person determined to be a sexual psychopath, with the address shown only as a block, so two entries on the same block are not two people at one address. A person missing from the site may be a Class C registrant whose record is open at any police district, someone whose sentence ended before the 1999 act took effect, or someone never convicted.

The Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency holds the registration and the verification, the Superior Court certifies the duty and hears a challenge to it, and the police department's Sex Offender Registry Unit at 441 4th Street NW answers at (202) 727-4407 for corrections, concerns and the whereabouts of a wanted offender.

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Questions about the District of Columbia sex offender registry

How do I search the District of Columbia sex offender registry?
On the Metropolitan Police Department website, which lists Class A and Class B registrants with block level addresses, or in person at any police district or the Sex Offender Registry Unit at 441 4th Street NW, Room 550 South, where the complete Class A, B and C registry can be read.
Who must register in the District of Columbia?
Anyone convicted, or found not guilty by reason of insanity, of a registration required offence who lives, works or attends school in the District; generally a felony sexual assault whatever the victim's age, an offence involving the sexual abuse or exploitation of minors, or the sexual abuse of a ward, patient or client.
Which District offenders appear on the website?
People convicted or found not guilty by reason of insanity of the most serious sex offences, of more than one sex offence, of an offence against a minor or against a ward or patient, and people determined to be sexual psychopaths; everyone else required to register is listed at the police stations.
Why do several District offenders seem to share an address?
Because the website gives addresses at the block level only and never a specific address, so entries on the same block can look like one address when the offenders live apart.
Can the police stop a sex offender from living in a DC neighborhood?
No; the Metropolitan Police Department has no authority to direct where a sex offender may live, work or attend school, and unless a court has imposed specific restrictions on the release the offender may live wherever the offender chooses.
What happens if a DC sex offender fails to register?
It is a crime: the first violation conviction is a misdemeanour and a conviction for a second violation is a felony, under the Sex Offender Registration Act of 1999.

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The District's other public records guides on this site are the District of Columbia arrest records guide for what a booking makes public, the District of Columbia inmate search guide for the Department of Corrections, the District of Columbia court records guide for the Superior Court, and the District of Columbia pages for every police district.