Hawaii calls its registry the Sex Offender and Other Covered Offender Search, a Department of the Attorney General service run by the Hawaii Criminal Justice Data Center, and the name is exact: chapter 846E of the Hawaii Revised Statutes, titled Registration of Sex Offenders and Other Covered Offenders and Public Access to Registration Information, registers two groups, sex offenders and offenders against minors, as covered offenders, and the site's terms of use state that the information is provided under that chapter based solely on criminal convictions and not on any assessment of dangerousness, that the state does not represent or imply that any listed offender is dangerous, and that anyone who uses the information to injure, harass or commit a crime against a listed person may face prosecution, civil liability or both. The search page takes a first and last name, a street name, a ZIP code from the full list of Hawaii ZIP codes, or a street name with a city and a radius, with filters for the offender type and the covered offender status and for the islands, Oahu, Maui, Hawaii, Kauai, Molokai and Lanai; the alerts page sends an email whenever a covered offender updates the information or moves into a chosen area, after a login with an eHawaii.gov account; and the data center answers at 465 South King Street, Room 102, Honolulu, HI 96813 and (808) 587-3350, where errors and reports of possible unregistered offenders go to its Sex Offender Registration Unit.
The questions page adds the practical limits: the website is updated nightly and on an ongoing basis, so a printout is only as current as the moment it was made, a positive identification needs a fingerprint comparison with the prints taken at arrest or incarceration, the state makes no representation about dangerousness, and a flyer received about a covered offender may be passed around a neighborhood as long as the information is not used to harm the person. Registration itself happens at the county police, with the Attorney General's Investigations Division and the state sheriffs taking registrations by appointment as well, and the police department for each island is on the Hawaii county pages.
- Search: the covered offender search by name, street name, city, island, ZIP code or radius, updated nightly, with email alerts for an area and public access terminals at the data center and the main police stations on every island.
- Registration: in person with the chief of police of the county within three working days of arriving in Hawaii, release from incarceration, commitment or furlough, conviction without custody, probation, parole or more than ten days on any island; a visitor registers after ten days or 30 days in a year.
- Duration and checks: for life unless a court grants a petition to terminate; a nonforwardable form mailed in the first week of January, April, July and October and returned within ten days, or an in person report those weeks without a mailing address, plus an in person visit within 30 days after every birthday for a photograph.
- Rules: every change reported within three working days on the update form, no restriction in chapter 846E on where a registrant lives or works, and a class C felony for failing to comply.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Hawaii's own systems: the Hawaii Sex Offender and Other Covered Offender Search home page, the search page, the registry's frequently asked questions, the registry's email alerts page, the Hawaii Criminal Justice Data Center bulk covered offender registry download, the covered offender registration update form, each read on October 14, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Who is a covered offender
A sex offender under section 846E-1 is a person convicted at any time, before or after May 9, 2005, of a sexual offense, or charged with one and found unfit to proceed or acquitted for a physical or mental disease, disorder or defect and released into the community. The sexual offenses are sexual assault in the first, second and third degrees, the listed subsections of sexual assault in the fourth degree including the offense with a minor of at least 16, continuous sexual assault of a minor under 14, incest, sexual assault of an animal, commercial sexual exploitation, and promoting prostitution in the first and second degrees, leaving out the age based first and third degree assaults and incest when the perpetrator was under 18 and the two listed fourth degree offenses when the perpetrator was under 25; kidnapping when the charging document alleged an intent to subject the victim to a sexual offense; criminal sexual conduct toward a minor including indecent electronic display to a child, solicitation of a minor under 14 to engage in sexual conduct, use of a minor in a sexual performance, felony production, distribution or possession of child pornography under the promoting child abuse sections, electronic enticement of a child committed to facilitate another covered offense, solicitation of a minor to practice prostitution and commercial sexual exploitation of a minor; violation of privacy under section 711-1110.9; use of a computer in committing a covered offense; attempts, solicitations and conspiracies; comparable or greater offenses; and any federal, military, out of state, tribal or foreign conviction that would be a sexual offense here.
An offender against minors is a person who is not a sex offender but was convicted at any time, or charged and found unfit or acquitted and released, for a crime against minors: kidnapping of a minor by someone other than a parent, first or second degree unlawful imprisonment of a minor by a non parent, attempts, solicitations and conspiracies, comparable offenses and the same out of state convictions. A juvenile adjudicated in Family Court does not register.
Registering: three working days, with the chief of police
A covered offender registers in person with the chief of police of the county of residence or presence, or with another agency the attorney general designates, no later than three working days after the earliest of arrival in the state, release from incarceration, release from commitment, release on furlough, conviction for a covered offense unless incarcerated, release on probation, placement on parole, or arrival on any island where the offender lives or expects to be present for more than ten days; a registrant from another state who visits must comply with the chapter and register within three working days of arrival, since registration is required whenever a covered offender, resident or not, remains or expects to remain in Hawaii for more than ten days or for 30 days in a calendar year.
Registration hours are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays except state holidays unless a facility says otherwise, and the facilities are the Honolulu Police Department Records Division at 801 South Beretania Street, walk in from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., the Attorney General's Investigations Division at 465 South King Street, Room B-2, by appointment on weekday mornings, and the state sheriffs at the Kapolei Judiciary Complex on Tuesdays and Thursdays and at Keawe Station on Mondays and Fridays on Oahu; the Hilo and Kona police stations and the sheriffs at Hale Kaulike in Hilo and the Keakealani Building in Kealakekua on Hawaii island; the Kauai Police Department and the sheriffs at the Puuhonua Kaulike Building in Lihue; the Maui Police Department Records Division and the sheriffs at Hoapili Hale in Wailuku, the latter on Fridays by appointment; the Lanai police station in Lanai City; and the Molokai police station in Kaunakakai.
Lifetime, with a petition to end it
Hawaii's registry is a lifetime registration, the questions page states, unless, after certain requirements are met, the offender successfully petitions the court to terminate the registration requirement; the chapter sets no shorter term and no tiers.
The quarterly verification and the yearly visit
Verification runs on two tracks. A covered offender who registered a permanent residence address where the Postal Service delivers mail, or a permanent residence with a registered post office box, receives a nonforwardable verification form from the Department of the Attorney General during the first week of January, April, July and October every year, signs it to state that the person still lives at the last reported address and that nothing else has changed, or gives the new information, and mails it back within ten days of receipt.
A covered offender who registered a temporary residence address, a description of a place or area where the person lives for at least 30 nonconsecutive days in a 60 day period, no place of residence, or a permanent address without mail delivery and no post office box reports instead, during the first week of those same four months, to the chief of police where the person resides or to another designated agency, reviews the existing registry information, corrects what has changed or is wrong and supplies anything new.
On top of either track every covered offender reports in person every year, within the 30 days after the birthday, to the chief of police or the designated agency, reviews and corrects the record and lets the police take a current photograph.
Updates within three working days, and what the form asks
A covered offender who changes any registration information after the initial registration notifies the attorney general in writing within three working days, signing a statement that all the information is accurate and current, by mailing the Covered Offender Registration Update Form or a signed written statement to the data center, or by reporting in person to the Attorney General's Investigations Division or an approved police station to complete the form.
The form itself shows the breadth of the record: the name, nicknames and pseudonyms, Social Security number and any alias number, date of birth and any alias date, citizenship, scars, marks and tattoos; whether the registrant is homeless, with a description of the place or area, and whether on work furlough; the residence, mailing, temporary and future addresses with dates and telephone numbers; cell and other telephone numbers, email addresses, instant message names and other internet monikers; the employer's name and address or, without a fixed workplace, the general areas and normal travel routes, and professional licenses; any educational institution with the affiliation as student, faculty, staff or volunteer; every automobile, watercraft or aircraft with make, model, year, color, license number, where it is habitually kept and whether it is used exclusively for work, which takes an employer's letter; the covered offense record with each charge, place of disposition and date; copies of the driver's license or identification card and of passports and immigration documents, with passport numbers, nationality, immigration status and alien number; and whether the registrant is receiving or has received court ordered or Hawaii Paroling Authority ordered treatment.
What the public sees: the website, the terminals and the bulk file
Every covered offender qualifies to be on the website except one convicted of only one covered offense that is a misdemeanor not committed against a minor. Public access terminals are open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays except state holidays at the data center on South King Street and at the main police stations on each island, the Honolulu Police Department on Beretania Street, the Hilo and Kona stations, the Kauai Police Department in Lihue, the Maui Police Department in Wailuku and the Lanai station.
The bulk download system sells the public information defined in section 846E-3 on sex offenders and other covered offenders for $100 per download after a login, with technical support at (808) 695-4620 and purchase questions at (808) 695-4622, under the same reminder that only a fingerprint comparison positively identifies a person. Offenders registered in other states are found on the national public website the Department of Justice runs.
No residence restriction, and the penalty
Chapter 846E does not restrict where a registered covered offender may reside or work, the questions page states; a covered offender still under supervision may carry restrictions in the terms and conditions of supervision, a judge may order, for example, that the person not contact any minor child directly or indirectly or live in the same residence as minor children without the supervision officer's permission, and restrictions may arise in other circumstances. Failing to comply with chapter 846E is a class C felony.
Reading a Hawaii result
A listing on the data center's search means a covered offender, a sex offender or an offender against minors, registered for life with the county police, who answers the January, April, July and October verification and sits for a photograph every year after the birthday; a person with a single misdemeanor offense not against a minor is registered but not posted, and a juvenile adjudicated in Family Court is not registered at all.
The chief of police of the county holds the registration and takes the birthday visit, the Attorney General mails the quarterly forms and receives the three working day updates, and the court that hears a petition to terminate is the only road off the registry.
Questions about the Hawaii sex offender registry
Related Hawaii records
Hawaii's other public records guides on this site are the Hawaii arrest records guide for what a booking makes public, the Hawaii inmate search guide for the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the Hawaii background check guide for the data center's criminal history record checks, and the Hawaii county pages for every police department.