New Hampshire runs one registry for two groups, and the names matter: a sexual offender is a person required to register for a sexual offense, an offender against children is a person required to register for an offense against a child, and both are covered by chapter 651-B of the Revised Statutes Annotated, titled Registration of Criminal Offenders. Section 651-B:2 has every one of them registered with the Department of Safety, Division of State Police, and the division enters the information in what the statute calls the SOR system; the public search takes a first name, middle initial, last name, address, city, New Hampshire county, state or five digit ZIP code and returns a subset of each record, with the full record behind the offender's name, and a second search at the warrants page covers the non compliant offenders, whose information is not on the public list at all.
The disclaimer the department publishes is blunt about what the website is: the registry is a public record extracted from the state registration database, but the information on the website is not the entire list of registered sex offenders in New Hampshire, because the site carries only the outstanding arrest warrants for any offender who has not complied with the duty to register and certain information about registered offenders who committed certain criminal offenses against children, and it will not carry an offender against children whose application for removal from the public registry requirement the court has granted. The registry contains identifying information about the offense of registration, not the offender's whole criminal history, and no out of state criminal history at all; comparison by appearance can mislead, since only fingerprints positively identify a person; the department makes no warranty about accuracy; and law enforcement is warned not to arrest on the strength of the outstanding warrant list without checking the state warrant file and the agency holding the warrant. Errors go to the local police where the person lives or to the New Hampshire State Police Sexual Offender Registration unit at 33 Hazen Drive, Concord, NH 03305, (603) 223-3870 and NHSPSOR@dos.nh.gov. The police department or resident trooper that takes registrations in each town is on the New Hampshire county pages.
- Search: the state police offender search by name, address, city, county, state or ZIP code, plus the warrants search for non compliant offenders; the public list is a subset of the registry, not the whole of it.
- Reports: in person to the local police within five business days of release, conviction without incarceration or establishing residence, employment or schooling, then quarterly for a tier III offender and semiannually for a tier I or tier II offender, each within five business days after the birthday anniversary.
- Duration: ten years from release for a tier I offender and life for a tier II or tier III offender, with a juvenile's registration ending at 18 unless the court keeps jurisdiction.
- Fee and penalty: $50 a year within ten days of the birth month registration, waivable for indigency; a negligent failure is a misdemeanor, a knowing failure a class B felony that adds ten years of registration, and a repeat a class A felony that can make a ten year term lifelong.
Written by SearchSystems.net from New Hampshire's own systems: the New Hampshire registration of criminal offenders public search, the state police warrants search for non compliant offenders, the New Hampshire State Police criminal offenders disclaimer, the state police criminal offenders frequently asked questions, RSA chapter 651-B, Registration of Criminal Offenders, the state police Justice Information Bureau page, each read on October 14, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Who registers, and the three tiers
Section 651-B:1 defines a sexual offense as capital murder under RSA 630:1, I(e), first degree murder under RSA 630:1-a, I(b)(1), aggravated felonious sexual assault, felonious sexual assault, the listed subsections of sexual assault, the listed subsections of violation of privacy and a second or later indecent exposure and lewdness within five years, where the victim was 18 or older, together with accomplice liability, attempts, conspiracies and solicitations; a version of that paragraph effective January 1, 2027 drops the reference to RSA 632-A:4, III.
An offense against a child is the same list plus kidnapping, criminal restraint, false imprisonment, incest, the other indecent exposure and lewdness subsections and prostitution where the victim was under 18, and separately intentional contribution to the delinquency of a minor, the age based sexual assault subsection when the actor was 18 or older, endangering the welfare of a child, the possession, distribution, manufacture and creation offenses for child sexual abuse images and child intimate visual representations, computer pornography, certain uses of computer services and obscene matters.
Both definitions reach a reasonably equivalent law of another state, country, territory, tribal territory or the federal government, with country meaning Canada, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand and any country the State Department has found to have an independent judiciary that generally enforces the right to a fair trial, and any offense for which the person must register where the conviction happened; and both let the court require registration for any other criminal offense when it finds by clear and convincing evidence at conviction or sentencing that the person committed it out of sexual compulsion or for sexual gratification and that public protection would be served, the court then fixing the tier after a hearing that meets due process and carries a right of appeal.
Tier I covers the listed sexual assault, violation of privacy and repeat indecent exposure offenses; tier II covers contribution to delinquency, the first, second and age based fourth subsections of felonious sexual assault with a victim of 13 to 17, criminal restraint, false imprisonment, the trafficking section, endangering the welfare of a child, indecent exposure and lewdness, prostitution, the child sexual abuse image offenses, computer pornography, computer services, obscene matters and the listed privacy offense, and reaches anyone registering for more than one offense; tier III covers capital murder, first degree murder, aggravated felonious sexual assault, the third subsection of felonious sexual assault and its fourth subsection when the victim was under 13, kidnapping and incest, anyone sentenced to an extended term for a registrable offense, anyone civilly committed as a sexually violent predator under RSA 135-E, and anyone registering for more than two offenses.
Required to register covers a conviction, a finding of not guilty by reason of insanity, a juvenile delinquency adjudication where the court so finds at the dispositional hearing, an out of state juvenile adjudication that requires registration there, and a sexually violent predator commitment, with a juvenile certified and tried as an adult treated as an adult throughout. Residence, the chapter says, means a place where a person is living or temporarily staying for more than a total of five days in a one month period, a shelter or any structure with a street address included.
Reporting in person: five business days, then the birthday cycle
Under section 651-B:4 a registrant living in New Hampshire reports in person to the local law enforcement agency within five business days after release, after conviction when not incarcerated, or after establishing residence, employment or schooling in the state, reporting to the agency over the primary residence when there is more than one and listing every residence, including those outside New Hampshire. After that a tier III offender reports in person quarterly, within five business days after each birthday anniversary and every three months thereafter, and a tier I or tier II offender reports semiannually, within five business days after each birthday anniversary and every six months thereafter; a nonresident reports to the agency over the place of employment or school, or to the department in Concord when there is no principal workplace in the state.
Each report gives the name and aliases, the address of any permanent residence and any current temporary residence in or out of state and the mailing address, never a post office box in place of a physical address and, without a definite address, information about every place the person habitually lives, the name, address and date of any employment, which includes volunteer and unpaid work, or the places and regular travel routes of work without a fixed site, the name, address and date of any schooling, professional licenses and certifications, the make, model, color, plate or registration number and state of every vehicle, watercraft or aircraft owned or regularly operated and where each is kept, the date of birth and any alias date, the Social Security number, a physical description with scars and tattoos, fixed and cell telephone numbers, passport, travel and immigration documents, and the name, address and telephone number of the landlord when the registrant rents.
The department may also take a photograph at each report, a DNA sample when none exists, a set of major case prints with fingerprints and palm prints and a photocopy of the driver license or identification card, none of which needs the registrant's consent. Section 651-B:4-a adds the online identifiers, every email address, instant message screen name, social media profile name and user profile name for a website, game or mobile application whose primary purpose is two way person to person communication, reported within five business days after first use and after any change or new creation.
Under section 651-B:5 any other change in the required information is given in writing to the agency last reported to within five business days, a change of residence, employment or schooling is reported in person to the agency over the previous place within the same five business days, the agency forwards it to the division within five days, and a registrant moving out of state reports to the receiving jurisdiction within ten business days.
Verification twice a year, and every 90 days for extended terms
Section 651-B:3 has the department verify the address semiannually, either in person or by a letter sent by certified non forwarding mail, timed to fall before the offender's birthday and again before the six month semiannual registration; the letter reminds the offender of the duty to register in person, and the offender signs it and returns it to the officer on the spot or to the department within ten business days of receipt.
A local agency or the department may also verify any registrant's address by going to the home. For an offender sentenced to an extended term of imprisonment under RSA 651:6, I(b), section 651-B:4 adds a 90 day cycle: the department mails a nonforwardable verification form to the last reported address every 90 days after release or the start of parole, and the offender signs and mails it back within ten days stating that the address last reported to the local agency still holds.
At least once a month the commissioner of corrections, every county corrections superintendent and the commissioner of health and human services send the division a statement naming every registrant in their custody who is eligible for unsupervised work detail, release after secure psychiatric care or any other assignment that might bring the person into contact with the public, with no victim ever identified. The department's questions page adds the practical timing: the website is updated weekly, a local agency must submit a completed registration form within three days, offenders begin registering on release from incarceration or on conviction when incarceration is not part of the sentence, and a registrant may appear without a photograph because no law allowed the state to take photographs for the website before September 20, 2003, after which local agencies began photographing registrants at the annual registration or at any change and forwarding the images for posting.
Ten years or life, and the way off the public list
Section 651-B:6 registers every tier II and tier III offender for life and every tier I offender for ten years from the date of release, a period that never runs concurrently with one imposed for a later registrable offense. Removal from the public list is separate from removal from the registry. A tier III offender stays on the public list for life. A tier II offender may petition the superior court to take the name and information off the public list, no earlier than the completion of every term and condition of the sentence and in no case earlier than fifteen years after release, and a tier I offender may petition no earlier than five years after release, each petition carrying a risk assessment prepared by a qualified psychiatrist or psychologist at the offender's expense; the court may grant it when the offender has no conviction for a felony, class A misdemeanor, sex offense or offense against a child, has completed every period of supervised release, probation or parole and has completed an appropriate sex offender treatment program, and a tier II offender denied must wait five years to try again.
Before granting any such petition the court notifies the prosecuting county attorney, the victim advocate and the victim or the victim's family, hears them, gives the victim the chance to address the court in person, by counsel or in writing, and grants the application only after a hearing and only when removal will assist the individual's rehabilitation and be consistent with the public welfare. A juvenile registered on a delinquency adjudication comes off at 18 unless the adjudicating court keeps jurisdiction, in which case registration ends when the court's jurisdiction does.
Section 651-B:6, V lets a tier II or tier III offender convicted before the registry existed petition for relief from registration altogether, in the county of the most recent predicate conviction or of residence for an out of state conviction, with the current address, the details and certified criminal history of every conviction, a risk assessment showing the petitioner is not a danger and no longer poses a risk sufficient to justify registration, 60 days' notice to the county attorney, the department's sex offender unit and the Department of Corrections, reasonable efforts to notify the victim, and a hearing; relief follows only when the offender has no subsequent registrable conviction, completed supervision and treatment and shown that the danger has passed, with five years before a new petition after a denial.
Section 651-B:10 adds three hearings of its own: an offender told that an out of state offense is reasonably equivalent to a listed one may ask the commissioner for a hearing within ten days and appeal to the superior court, an offender registering because the state of conviction requires it may ask the superior court to review the requirement and set the tier, and a person registered for the pre-2009 felonious sexual assault subsection with an age difference of less than four years and no other registrable adjudication may apply to the superior court for review, with the prosecutor and the victim heard and five years before any new application after a denial.
What the public list holds, and what it leaves out
Section 651-B:7 starts from the opposite of an open file: the records and information collected under the chapter are not public records subject to inspection under the right to know law, though nothing limits a law enforcement agency from using or disclosing them for a valid law enforcement function or a person from obtaining their own record. The division keeps two lists. The law enforcement list holds every tier I, tier II and tier III registrant, everything reported to the local agency or the department, the text of the statute of conviction and the offender's criminal history, and goes only to law enforcement.
The public list holds the tier I, tier II and tier III offenders who register as a result of an offense against a child, the offenders the division learns of through the monthly custody statements who will register for such an offense, and anyone registering for more than one sexual offense or offense against a child, with the name, alias, age, race, sex, date of birth, height, weight, hair and eye color and other physical description, the permanent and temporary addresses in or out of state, the offense of registration with the text of the statute and any other sex offense conviction, the date and court of the adjudication, the outstanding arrest warrants and identifying details for offenders who never complied, the criminal history with conviction dates and the status of parole, probation or supervised release and of registration, a photograph and the address of any school attended, and, where available, the victim profile and the method of approach.
It never holds the identity of a victim directly or indirectly, with aggravated felonious sexual assault convictions listed so that no relationship or household is revealed and no statutory subparagraph printed, the Social Security number, arrests that brought no conviction, the employer or school name, or anything about a registered juvenile delinquent. The list is given to anyone who asks a local law enforcement agency and is published on the department's website so that the public can get the records for a ZIP code or a geographic radius in one query, local agencies may photograph registrants without consent, and a local agency may affirmatively notify the public that a listed offender is living in the community, with immunity for agencies, officials and municipalities acting in good faith either way.
The $50 fee
Section 651-B:11 charges each offender $50, paid to the department in person or by mail within ten days of the registration that falls in the month of the birthday; the department keeps $40 for the costs of maintaining the registry and forwards $10 to the law enforcement agency that registered the offender that month, at least once a year. An offender who cannot pay requests a waiver and a hearing from the commissioner within ten days of registration and files a financial affidavit, the division may request the waiver on the offender's behalf, the commissioner may waive the fee on the affidavit alone, the burden at any hearing is on the offender to prove indigency, and the decision may be appealed to the superior court, none of which ever excuses the duty to register. Failing to pay is a violation for a first offense and a misdemeanor after that.
Penalties
Section 651-B:9 grades the failures. A registrant who negligently fails to comply commits a misdemeanor. One who knowingly fails to comply commits a class B felony and, if registered for ten years as a tier I offender, must register for an additional ten years from the date of that conviction, consecutive to the original period and imposed even if the original period has already run. A registrant previously convicted under that paragraph who knowingly fails again commits a class A felony, and a ten year registrant convicted under it registers for life.
Knowingly giving false information in response to any requirement is a class B felony. A person who has reason to believe a registrant is not complying and purposely helps the offender elude law enforcement commits a class B felony, whether by withholding information about the noncompliance and whereabouts, harboring or concealing the offender or helping someone else do so, giving the police information known to be false or warning the offender that the police are looking.
A registrant convicted of aggravated felonious sexual assault, felonious sexual assault or sexual assault who initiates any contact with the victim, directly or indirectly, electronically, by leaving items or through another person, commits a class A misdemeanor, unless an ongoing relationship predating the offense, such as shared custody of a child or an emergency involving a shared sibling or parent, makes contact necessary, and then only on the immediate issue.
The penalties do not reach registered juveniles, whose court imposes its own disposition, and the chapter is to be read, wherever possible, consistently with the federal Jacob Wetterling Act.
Reading a New Hampshire result
A record on the department's site means an offender whose registration arose from an offense against a child or from more than one registrable offense, with the tier fixing the reporting rhythm, quarterly for tier III and semiannually for tiers I and II, and the term, ten years for tier I and life for the others; a name found only on the warrants page is a non compliant offender whose record is otherwise off the public list. A missing name may belong to a registrant whose offense had an adult victim and stands alone, to a registered juvenile, to an offender a court removed from the public list, or to someone whose photograph or registration is still working its way from the local agency to the division.
The local police hold the in person reports, the division in Concord holds the SOR system, the full list and the fee account, and the superior court holds every petition.
Questions about the New Hampshire sex offender registry
Related New Hampshire records
New Hampshire's other public records guides on this site are the New Hampshire arrest records guide for what a booking makes public, the New Hampshire inmate search guide for the Department of Corrections and the county houses of correction, the New Hampshire court records guide for the Judicial Branch case access, and the New Hampshire county pages for every police department and sheriff.