The Kentucky State Police registry page explains that KRS 17.580 has the state police provide sex offender registration information to the public, with the stated intent of promoting public safety and awareness by alerting possible victims of potential danger, not punishing or embarrassing offenders; it notes that convicted sex offenders have always lived in Kentucky communities and only in recent years have laws required them to register, that many re-offend, and that not every criminal offense requires registration, only those the statute covers. The search runs on the registry site at kspsor.state.ky.us, where one or more fields, an offender number or last name, a street address, a city, a county or a ZIP Code, return the matching registrants, a second form draws a neighborhood map around an address with a chosen radius, and a third tracks offenders moving in and out of a ZIP Code; the site's own advice is to type as little as possible, since a county name alone lists every offender registered in that county and each name opens to the fuller record. The information the website shows is all the state police may release about an offender, so the details of the crime come from the circuit clerk of the county of conviction, who keeps the Administrative Office of the Courts public access terminal, and an offender convicted in another state has no Kentucky court file at all.
The registration itself does not go through the sheriffs. An offender reports the address to the Department of Corrections before release from prison, or to the Division of Probation and Parole on being placed on probation or on moving in from another state, on a standard registration form the offender signs, and the form goes to the state police for the database and the website; a move is reported on an address change form to the local probation and parole office before it happens, and moving without that form makes the offender non compliant and open to a Class D felony charge for a first offense and a Class C felony for each later one. The majority of the people on the site are under no supervision at all, having served out their sentences or finished probation, and remain free to move about as long as they follow the registration law. The state police registry unit at 1266 Louisville Road, Frankfort, KY 40601 answers at (502) 227-8700 and kspsor@ky.gov, and the probation and parole office, the sheriff and the police for any address are on the Kentucky county pages.
- Search: the state police registry site by offender number, last name, street address, city, county or ZIP Code, a neighborhood map by radius, and a ZIP Code tracker; a county name alone lists the whole county.
- Duration: 20 years after discharge from confinement or after the maximum discharge date on probation, parole or other release, whichever is later, or life for first degree rape, first degree sodomy, kidnapping or unlawful confinement of a minor, repeat offenders, two or more felonies against minors and predators from other jurisdictions.
- Reporting: to the local probation and parole office, with an address change form before any move, a new photograph every two years, 21 days' notice before foreign travel, five working days after return, and every 30 days in person when homeless.
- Distance rules: no residence within 1,000 feet of a high school, middle school, elementary school, preschool, publicly owned or leased playground or licensed day care, no loitering or mobile business within 1,000 feet of those or a public pool or splash pad, and no shared residence with a minor after an offense against one.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Kentucky's own systems: the Kentucky State Police sex offender registry page, the Kentucky Sex Offender Registry search site, the registry's frequently asked questions, the registry's related sites page, each read on October 14, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Who registers in Kentucky
Not everyone ever convicted of a sex crime registers, the registry's questions page explains, only offenders convicted of statutorily covered crimes who fit one of six descriptions: convicted after July 15, 1994 of a sex crime; incarcerated or sentenced after July 15, 1998 for a sex crime even if convicted before July 16, 1994; convicted or released from incarceration after April 11, 2000 for a criminal offense against a victim who is a minor, again even on an earlier conviction; required to register in another state, territory or federal jurisdiction, or convicted elsewhere of an offense that would require registration if committed in Kentucky; convicted of a sex crime or an offense against a minor victim under federal, military or another state's, territory's or country's law; or committed or designated as a sexually violent predator under the law of another state, territory, country or the federal government.
Convictions for sex crimes against adult victims require registration under KRS 17.500 and 17.510 as much as crimes against children. A person believed to have been convicted but missing from the site may still be in prison, since offenders are not registered until release, and the Department of Corrections online lookup or the VINE line at 1-800-511-1670 shows who is inside; many defendants are never convicted of the original charge, and an offender who moved out of Kentucky and transferred the registration is no longer an active Kentucky registrant.
The legal definition of any listed charge, first degree rape or first degree sexual abuse for example, comes from the legislature's statute search by charge name or KRS number.
Probation and parole, not the sheriff: the reporting rules
KRS 17.510 runs the reporting through the local probation and parole office. Under subsection 4 a registrant returns to that office at least once every two years for a new photograph and pays the cost of updating it, a rule effective July 12, 2006 that explains why some older registrants still lack a photograph, since before April 11, 2000 no photograph was required and the state police are adding old booking photographs as they find them.
Under subsection 10(e) a registrant traveling outside the United States registers the passport number and country of issue, the dates of departure, travel and return and the countries, colonies, territories or possessions to be visited with the probation and parole office at least 21 days before leaving, and reports the actual dates and places within five working days of returning. Since January 1, 2024 a registrant with no established and fixed residence of regular return reports in person at least every 30 days to the probation and parole office in the county where the person is present and registers the approximate area where the person can be found, notifies the current office on or before moving to a new county, and reports in person to the office in the new county within five working days.
The state police and other agencies never telephone a registrant to collect fees, fines or bond money, and any such call is a scam to report to the registry at (502) 227-8700.
Twenty years or life
The length of registration turns on the offense, on multiple convictions, on a history of sexual offenses and on specified crimes against minors, and the statute sets two periods, lifetime and twenty years. Lifetime registration is mandatory for offenders convicted, released or registered after April 11, 2000 for first degree rape, first degree sodomy, or kidnapping or unlawful confinement of a minor other than by a parent, for anyone convicted of a sex crime with prior convictions for specified offenses, for anyone convicted of two or more felony criminal offenses against minor victims, and for anyone designated a sexually violent predator in another jurisdiction; every other registrant registers for 20 years following discharge from confinement or for 20 years following the maximum discharge date on probation, shock probation, conditional discharge, parole or other early release, whichever is greater.
An offender who is incarcerated again has the registry time put on hold for the stay and resumed on release.
Address verification by mail
The state verifies addresses by sending a verification form to the registrant's registered address, which the registrant signs and returns within 10 days; a lifetime registrant's address is verified every 90 days and a ten year or twenty year registrant's once a year. A registrant who fails to respond is deemed non compliant, the local authorities are notified, and the charge is a Class D felony for a first offense and a Class C felony for each later one, the same penalties that follow a move made without the address change form.
Anyone who suspects that an offender has left the address shown on the website reports it to the police department, sheriff or state police post serving the area so that an investigation can be made, since the website shows only what the offender registered, and tips about non emergency criminal activity by a registrant go to local law enforcement rather than the website.
The 1,000 foot rule and the household rule
KRS 17.545, quoted in full on the registry's questions page, bars any registrant from residing within 1,000 feet of a high school, middle school, elementary school, preschool, publicly owned or leased playground or licensed day care facility, measured in a straight line from the nearest property line to the nearest property line of the residence, and bars any registrant, or any out of state offender who would have to register here, from being on, loitering within 1,000 feet of, or working in or operating a mobile business within 1,000 feet of the clearly defined grounds of those places or of a publicly owned or leased swimming pool or splash pad, except with the advance written permission of the principal, school board, local legislative body or day care director given after full disclosure of the person's status; loitering means remaining in or about the grounds without custody of or responsibility for a minor or another specific legitimate reason.
The registrant carries the duty to find out whether such a property lies within 1,000 feet of the residence, and when a new facility opens the registrant is presumed to know it and must comply within 90 days, the same 90 days that applied to registrants living within the zone on July 12, 2006. A registrant 18 or older who committed a criminal offense against a minor victim after July 14, 2018 may not share a residence with a minor unless the registrant is the minor's spouse, parent, grandparent, stepparent, sibling, stepsibling or court appointed guardian, and not even then if that person was the victim.
A violation of the residence or household rule is a Class A misdemeanor on a first offense and a Class D felony on each later one; the publicly leased playground, loitering and mobile business rules do not reach back to earlier conduct, and a youthful offender probated or paroled as a minor or while enrolled in elementary or secondary school is exempt until adulthood ends the schooling. The page also quotes the Supreme Court of Kentucky in Commonwealth v.
Baker, 295 S.W.3d 437 (2009), holding that the residence restriction cannot be applied to anyone whose offense predates July 12, 2006, adds that probation or parole conditions may keep a supervised offender away from places where children are present, and states that the state police do not evaluate or approve particular locations, so a registrant unsure about an address consults an attorney.
Electronic communication and photographs of minors
KRS 17.546, effective July 14, 2018, bars a registrant who committed a criminal offense against a minor victim after that date from knowingly using electronic communications, any transfer of signs, signals, data, writings, images, sounds, text, voice or video by electrons or electromagnetic waves, to communicate with or gather information about a person under 18, unless the registrant is the person's parent and no court order or condition of probation, shock probation, conditional discharge, parole or other release forbids it; and it bars every registrant from intentionally photographing, filming or videoing a minor by traditional or electronic means without the written consent of the minor's parent, legal custodian or guardian, a consent that must state that the person seeking it is required to register as a sex offender, unless the registrant is the minor's own parent, custodian or guardian. Either violation is a Class A misdemeanor.
Alerts, the public record and the harassment warning
Signing up on the registry site takes only an email address: a subscriber chooses ZIP Codes or individual registrants to monitor, and when a registered sex offender moves into a chosen ZIP Code or a monitored offender's record is updated the state police send an email that points back to the website for the details, a service the agency describes as built for parents, school personnel, day care workers and all citizens. Everything on the website is public record under KRS 17.580 and may be freely passed on without civil penalty, with one statutory limit: using it to harass a listed person is a crime under KRS 525.070 and 525.080, punishable by up to 90 days in the county jail, with heavier penalties for heavier crimes against a listed person, and the state police do not and cannot guarantee the accuracy of what the site shows.
The site's related sites page links the Kentucky Online Offender Lookup, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the national registry search and every other state's registry, with the caution that the state police maintain none of them.
Reading a Kentucky result
A record on the state police site means an offender released from custody and registered through a probation and parole office, with a lifetime or 20 year term the offense decides and an address verified every 90 days or once a year by mail; a missing photograph points to a registration before April 11, 2000, and a missing name may mean a prisoner not yet released, an acquittal or lesser conviction, or a registrant who transferred to another state.
The probation and parole office holds the registration form, the circuit clerk of the county of conviction holds the case file, and the state police unit in Frankfort corrects the website.
Questions about the Kentucky sex offender registry
Related Kentucky records
For the rest of Kentucky's public records on this site, see the Kentucky arrest records guide for what a booking makes public, the Kentucky inmate search guide for the Department of Corrections online offender lookup and the county jails, the Kentucky court records guide for the circuit clerks and the Administrative Office of the Courts, and the Kentucky county pages for every sheriff and police department.