How the Sex Offender Registry Works in Maine

The Maine Sex Offender Registry website is maintained by the Maine State Police, State Bureau of Identification, to give the public information about the location of registered offenders currently in Maine, and it does not contain every person convicted of a sex crime: information is provided only for people required to register under Title 34-A of the Maine Revised Statutes, chapters 15 and 17, and registration is limited to people sentenced for a qualifying offense. The information is updated daily to reflect what is on file with the bureau, the date of the last update appears on every page, registrants must verify their address periodically and on any change, and the date a registrant last verified is shown beside the address, though a registrant may have moved without telling the bureau; a Maine convicted registrant who moves out of state stays on the Maine registry until the obligation to register expires, but the record may no longer be updated, so an entry marked moved out of state should not be relied on, and the national public website is the place to look for such a person. The bureau does not guarantee the accuracy of any listed address, makes no representation that the registry is accurate, and takes corrections at 207-624-7270 on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. or at SOR.helpdesk@maine.gov.

Two laws govern the registrants, and the registry's questions page explains how to tell them apart. The Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act of 1999, chapter 15 of Title 34-A, governs crimes committed before January 1, 2013, and a registrant under it is listed as a ten year or a lifetime registrant; the Sex Offender Registration Act of 2013, chapter 17, governs any crime committed on or after January 1, 2013, and a registrant under it is listed as Tier I, Tier II or Tier III. The registration requirements differ between the two chapters, and the terms differ too: under the 1999 act a person convicted of a sex offense registers for ten years and a person convicted of a sexually violent offense for life, the lists of those crimes sitting in section 11203, while under the 2013 act a Tier I registrant registers for ten years, a Tier II registrant for 25 years and a Tier III registrant for life, the tier offenses defined in section 11273. The police department or sheriff that takes registrations in each county is on the Maine county pages.

  • Search: the State Bureau of Identification website by an individual's first and last name, by city or town, or by ZIP code and radius, after accepting the agreement; free, anonymous and updated daily, with alerts for subscribers.
  • Two acts: crimes before January 1, 2013 fall under the 1999 act, with ten year registrants for a sex offense and lifetime registrants for a sexually violent offense; crimes on or after that date fall under the 2013 act, with Tier I at ten years, Tier II at 25 years and Tier III for life.
  • Verification: registrants verify their addresses quarterly, semiannually or yearly and report any change of address to the bureau; the date of the last verification is shown beside each address.
  • Residence: the registration laws set no restriction on where a registrant may live; probation or supervised release conditions may, and a town ordinance may, but only for Class A, B or C crimes against children under 14.

Written by SearchSystems.net from Maine's own systems: the Maine Sex Offender Registry website, the registry's frequently asked questions, the Maine Department of Corrections adult resident and community corrections client search, each read on October 14, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.

The initial search returns, for a registrant under the 1999 act, the name, the date of birth, a photograph if one is available, the city or town of physical domicile, the place of employment, the place of school attendance, the statutory citation and name of the crime of conviction, and the designation as a ten year or lifetime registrant; for a registrant under the 2013 act it adds the known aliases, the designation as Tier I, Tier II or Tier III, the date of the last verification, and the registrant's address with its location on a map.

The extended search, opened by reading and agreeing to the terms of use, adds, to the extent available, the aliases of a 1999 act registrant, the physical description with gender, race, height, weight and hair and eye color, the mailing and home address or domicile, and a legal description of the crime with the date of conviction, the court, the docket number and the sentence imposed. There is no cost, and the identity of anyone who uses the site is not public information and is not disclosed to a member of the public who asks.

The convictions listed are only the crimes that were reported and successfully prosecuted, and a full Maine criminal history record, which does not include other states' or federal or tribal convictions, is bought from the bureau at 207-624-7240 or through the state's online public criminal history request service.

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Why a name may be missing

A member of the public who believes someone should be registered can tell the registry office, whose staff research the person and decide whether the law requires registration, and the questions page lists why a convicted person may not appear: the person is still incarcerated; the required registration period has been completed; the crime does not require registration; the person is a new registrant whose registration is in process; the conviction was vacated or set aside or the person was pardoned; the person is not living, attending school or working in Maine; the person was granted relief from the duty to register under section 11202-A of Title 34-A; or the conviction is controlled by an earlier registration law that did not provide for posting on the internet.

The registry also warns that sexual assault and abuse are among the most underreported crimes, so many offenders are not listed because they were never convicted, and that many registrants are required to register only for a limited time. A person in the custody of the Department of Corrections is found on the adult resident and community corrections client search, which covers adults in the department's facilities, in county jails, other states or federal facilities under its jurisdiction, and adults it supervises on probation, supervised release for sex offenders, supervised community confinement or parole, updated daily; people held in county jails on local charges are checked with the jail.

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Notification, and the absence of a residence rule

Public notification when a registrant moves into a neighborhood is made at the discretion of the law enforcement agency with jurisdiction where the registrant lives, so the question of how a community is told goes to the local police or sheriff. Maine's registration laws include no restriction on where a person may live. A sentence that includes probation or supervised release may carry special conditions on where the person may live, work or travel, whether or not the person must register; some towns have enacted ordinances limiting where convicted sex offenders may live, which apply only inside the towns that adopted them and only to people convicted of serious crimes, Class A, B or C, against children under 14, the town office being the place to ask; and a conviction may restrict contact with minors under section 261 of Title 17-A, which the local police explain.

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The official site, the local sites and the fraud warning

Maine law makes the internet site published by the Maine State Police the official registry site, holding information on people required to register who have actually registered in Maine; police departments and sheriffs' offices may post information about sex offenders on their own websites but must link to the official site, other states, territories and some tribes run their own registries linked from the national site, and websites published by private organizations are neither maintained nor sanctioned by the state, which has no knowledge of how accurate or current they are.

The bureau also warns of fraud: it has received reports of people contacting registrants to claim that a fine must be paid for noncompliance or jail will follow, and reminds everyone that while officers contact registrants for routine business, fines are imposed only by a court and officers have no role in collecting them, so a registrant who gets such a call hangs up and reports it to the local police. Subscribers who open an account on the site are notified of registry activity in their area, and a registrant may email a passport style photograph, full face and chest up on a white background and taken within the past six months, to the help desk.

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Reading a Maine result

An entry on the bureau's site tells the reader which law applies by its label, ten year or lifetime for a crime before January 1, 2013 and Tier I, II or III for a later one, and therefore the term, ten years, 25 years or life, and carries the date the registrant last verified the address, which the registrant renews quarterly, semiannually or yearly; an entry marked moved out of state is frozen at the last Maine update. A missing name may belong to a prisoner, a person whose term ended, a person relieved by a court, or a conviction under an old law never posted online.

The registry office at 45 Commerce Drive, Suite 1, 42 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04333-0042 holds the file and takes corrections, the local police or sheriff decides any public notification, and the Department of Corrections search shows who is in custody or under supervision.

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Questions about the Maine sex offender registry

How do I search the Maine sex offender registry?
On the Maine State Police State Bureau of Identification website, after accepting the agreement, by an individual's name, by city or town, or by ZIP code and radius; the initial search gives the name, birth date, photograph, town, employer, school, crime and designation, and the extended search adds the description, addresses and sentence.
How long does a Maine sex offender register?
Ten years for a sex offense and life for a sexually violent offense committed before January 1, 2013 under the 1999 act, and ten years at Tier I, 25 years at Tier II and life at Tier III for crimes on or after that date under the 2013 act.
How often does a Maine registrant verify an address?
Quarterly, semiannually or yearly depending on the registrant's category, and on every change of address, with the date of the last verification shown beside the address on the website.
Can a registered sex offender live near a school in Maine?
The registration laws set no residence restriction; a probation or supervised release condition may, and a town ordinance may within that town for Class A, B or C crimes against children under 14, while section 261 of the criminal code may restrict contact with minors.
Who notifies the neighborhood when a sex offender moves in Maine?
The local law enforcement agency where the registrant lives, at its own discretion; the state site itself offers subscriber alerts about registry activity in a chosen area.
Why is a person convicted of a sex crime not on the Maine registry?
Because the person may still be in prison, may have finished the registration period, may have a conviction that does not require registration, may be a new registrant in process, may have been pardoned or had the conviction set aside, may not live, work or study in Maine, may have been granted relief under section 11202-A, or may fall under an older law that did not post online.

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Maine's other public records guides on this site are the Maine arrest records guide for what a booking makes public, the Maine inmate search guide for the Department of Corrections resident search and the county jails, the Maine background check guide for the bureau's criminal history record service, and the Maine county pages for every sheriff and police department.