The South Dakota Sex Offender Registry is an Office of the Attorney General site run by the Division of Criminal Investigation, and its entry page explains that in 2006 the legislature amended the registry laws to provide a public access internet site listing all offenders registered in the state. What the public may see is set by section 22-24B-10 of the Codified Laws, which the page quotes: an offender's registration compliance status and registration information, other than the Social Security number, the victim's name, the DNA sample and the names, addresses and phone numbers of local contacts and next of kin, are public information, and that fuller public record can be viewed at the police station of the municipality where the offender lives, temporarily domiciles, attends school or postsecondary classes or works, or at the sheriff's office of the county where there is no police chief. The division says it does its best to keep the site accurate and current, warns that residences, jobs and schools can change faster than the record, notes that some offenders are shown as registered on an Indian reservation from information the reservation supplied, so the reservation itself is the place to confirm them, and states that it has assessed no individual's risk of reoffending and has decided that no listed person is currently dangerous, every registrant being there solely by conviction record and state law. The only sure way to link a person to a record is a fingerprint comparison, and using the information to threaten, intimidate or harass a registrant or a family member, or otherwise misusing it, is a Class 6 felony punishable by up to two years in the state penitentiary and a $4,000 fine; an error is reported to the sheriff of the county or the police chief of the city where the offender lives.
The site also carries the law enforcement contacts, public notifications, the registry, offense and tier statutes and links to the nine tribal registries, for the Cheyenne River Sioux, Crow Creek Sioux, Flandreau Santee Sioux, Lower Brule Sioux, Oglala Sioux, Rosebud Sioux, Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, Standing Rock Sioux and Yankton Sioux tribes. Registration in South Dakota is local and frequent: the police chief or the sheriff takes it, the same office takes the re-registration twice a year, and the division in Pierre mails the yearly verification form and keeps the file. The sheriff's office and police department for every county are on the South Dakota county pages.
- Search: the Attorney General's registry site after accepting the disclaimer, listing every registered offender in the state; the fuller record is open at the local police station or sheriff's office.
- Registration: in person with the chief of police or the county sheriff within three business days of coming into a county to reside, temporarily domicile, attend school or work, then every six months, in the birth month and six months later, with a mailed verification form returned within ten days each year.
- Tiers: Tier I registers for a minimum of five years, Tier II for a minimum of 25 and Tier III for life; Tier III is everyone not eligible for removal under the Tier I and Tier II criteria.
- Zones: no registrant may live or loiter within a community safety zone, 500 feet in a straight line from a school, licensed or registered day care, public park, playground or pool, domestic abuse shelter or sexual assault shelter, a Class 6 felony and a Class 5 felony on repetition.
Written by SearchSystems.net from South Dakota's own systems: the South Dakota Sex Offender Registry website, South Dakota Codified Laws section 22-24B-1 on the sex crimes, section 22-24B-2 on registration, section 22-24B-2.1 on the three tiers, section 22-24B-5 on the annual verification form, section 22-24B-7 on registration every six months, section 22-24B-8 on the registration information, section 22-24B-10 on the public file, section 22-24B-12 on notice of a move, section 22-24B-15 on registration records as public records, section 22-24B-17 on the removal petition, section 22-24B-19 on Tier I removal, section 22-24B-19.1 on Tier II removal, section 22-24B-19.2 defining Tier III, section 22-24B-22 defining the community safety zone, section 22-24B-23 on residence within a community safety zone, section 22-24B-24 on loitering, each read on October 14, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
The 25 sex crimes, and who registers
Section 22-24B-1 lists the sex crimes that require registration whatever the date of the offense or the conviction: rape; felony sexual contact with a minor under 16 by an adult; sexual contact with a person incapable of consenting; incest by an adult; possessing, distributing or manufacturing child pornography and the sale of it; sexual exploitation of a minor; kidnapping of a minor; promotion of the prostitution of a minor; the former crime of criminal pedophilia; felony indecent exposure under the former and the current sections; solicitation of a minor; bestiality; attempts, conspiracies and solicitations to commit any of them; any crime, court martial offense or tribal offense committed elsewhere that would be a sex crime here; any federal, court martial or tribal offense that is a sex crime under federal law; any crime from another state that requires registration there; sexual acts between a jail employee and a detainee and sexual contact or penetration by a psychotherapist when the victim is a minor; intentional exposure to HIV infection; first degree human trafficking of a minor and second degree human trafficking involving the prostitution of a minor; felony use or dissemination of a recording or photograph without consent for self gratification, harassment or embarrassment; and manufacturing, distributing or, as a felony, purchasing or possessing a child like sex doll.
Section 22-24B-2 makes every person convicted of one of them register in person, a conviction including a guilty verdict or plea, a nolo contendere plea and a suspended imposition of sentence not discharged before July 1, 1995, and makes a juvenile who was 14 or older at the offense register after an adjudication of rape, of a comparable out of state or federal offense or of a crime for which the other state registers juveniles, an adjudication including a delinquency finding, an admission and a suspended adjudication not discharged before July 1, 2009.
A person whose suspended imposition of sentence is discharged after July 1, 1995, or a juvenile whose suspended adjudication is discharged after July 1, 2009, sends a certified copy of the formal discharge by certified mail to the division and to the local agency of registration and is then removed from the public registry and relieved of the duty.
Registering within three business days, with the police chief or sheriff
A sex offender registers within three business days of coming into any county to reside, temporarily domicile, attend school, attend postsecondary education classes or work, with the chief of police of the municipality or the sheriff of the county, tells that chief or sheriff of any change in where the person lives, studies or works, and, when not otherwise registered in the state, registers within three business days of coming into a county on applying for or receiving a South Dakota driver license, registering a motor vehicle, establishing a postal address or registering to vote; a violation is a Class 6 felony.
Section 22-24B-12 adds that a registrant who moves to a different location or residence address informs the agency of last registration of the new location or address in writing within three business days, the agency forwarding it within three days to the division and to the agency with jurisdiction over the new location, a first failure being a Class 6 felony and any later one a Class 5 felony. Under section 22-24B-10 the registering agency sends every registration to the Division of Criminal Investigation within three days, and the division keeps the file of all registrations open to state, county and municipal law enforcement around the clock.
The three tiers
Section 22-24B-2.1 divides the registry into three tiers under sections 22-24B-19 to 22-24B-19.2: placement in Tier III requires registration throughout the registrant's lifetime, placement in Tier II requires a minimum of 25 years, and placement in Tier I requires a minimum of five years. The tiers are defined by eligibility for removal rather than by a risk score: a Tier I offender is one who meets the removal criteria of section 22-24B-19, a Tier II offender one who meets those of section 22-24B-19.1, and section 22-24B-19.2 makes everyone on the registry who is eligible under neither a Tier III offender.
Every six months, and the yearly mailed form
Section 22-24B-7 has every registrant re-register every six months, in the same manner as the initial registration, during the calendar month of birth and six months after it, a violation being a Class 6 felony. Section 22-24B-5 adds the mail: the Division of Criminal Investigation sends a nonforwardable verification form at least once a year to the last reported address, the registrant signs it to confirm still living there and returns it to the division within ten days of receipt, failing to return it within the ten days is a violation, not receiving the form is no defense, and the violation is a Class 6 felony.
What the file holds, and what the public sees
Section 22-24B-8 lists the registration information: the name, date of birth and every alias; the residence with the date it was established, the time spent there and the time expected to remain; the type of sex crime, with the dates of commission and conviction; the Social Security number on a separate confidential form; the driver license or identification card number and state with a photocopy; whether the registrant is receiving or has received sex offender treatment; the employer's or school's name, address and phone number and the length of employment or attendance; the occupation or vocation; the license plate of every vehicle owned or regularly operated; every internet account with the user names, screen names and aliases used online; a listing of all adult felony convictions anywhere and every sex offense conviction and adjudication, confirmed by the registering agency; a description of the offense supplied by the prosecuting attorney; whether the registrant is an inmate, parolee, juvenile in corrections placement or aftercare, or a jail or juvenile detention inmate, confirmed by the facility; whether the registrant is subject to community safety zone restrictions, supplied by the agency; the names, addresses and phone numbers of two local contacts who interact regularly with the registrant and of the next of kin; passport and immigration documents with photocopies; and any professional, occupational, business or trade license from any jurisdiction, with a DNA sample collected at registration for the State Forensic Laboratory unless one is already on file, and a Class 6 felony for failing to give any of it accurately.
Section 22-24B-15 makes the registration records collected by local agencies, the registration lists the division gives them and the records collected by institutions public records under the open records chapter, while keeping the victim's name and identifying information confidential to law enforcement, and section 22-24B-10 keeps the Social Security number, the DNA sample and the local contacts and next of kin out of the public file.
The community safety zones: 500 feet
Section 22-24B-22 defines a community safety zone as the area within 500 feet, measured in a straight line, of the facilities and grounds of a domestic abuse shelter, a licensed day care center, a licensed group family day care home, a public park, playground or pool, a registered family day care, a school, meaning any public, private, denominational or parochial school offering preschool, kindergarten or any grade from one through twelve accredited through the Department of Education, or a sexual assault shelter, the site itself included; to loiter means to remain for a period and under circumstances a reasonable person would take as being primarily for observing or contacting minors, and a residence is the address listed on the registry.
Under section 22-24B-23 no registrant may establish a residence or reside within a community safety zone unless incarcerated in a jail, prison or correctional placement there, assigned on parole or probation to a halfway house or supervised living center there, homeless and admitted to a community homeless shelter there by an appropriate official, placed in a licensed or certified health care facility or served by an accredited community service provider there, under 18 at the offense and not convicted as an adult, living in a residence established and inhabited by July 1, 2006 for a zone around a school, public park, playground or pool or by July 1, 2024 for a zone around a domestic abuse or sexual assault shelter, living where the protected site arrived later, or exempted by a circuit court order under section 22-24B-28; and under section 22-24B-24 no registrant may loiter within a community safety zone or a public library, with the same juvenile and court order exceptions.
A violation of either section is a Class 6 felony and any later violation a Class 5 felony.
Removal: Tier I after five years, Tier II after 25
Section 22-24B-17 lets a registrant eligible under section 22-24B-19, 22-24B-19.1 or 22-24B-19.4 petition the circuit court of the county of residence, or any county of registration for a nonresident, for an order ending the duty to register, serving the petition and its documentation on the state's attorney of the county of registration, the prosecutor where the offense occurred and the attorney general, whose office responds to every petition; the petitioner gets no appointed counsel, experts or publicly funded witnesses.
Under section 22-24B-19 a Tier I petitioner shows by clear and convincing evidence that at least five years have passed since first registering, not counting any time incarcerated or confined in a mental health facility for any reason, that the crime was statutory rape or an attempt at it by a petitioner 21 or younger, a juvenile adjudication for a sex crime, sexual contact with a victim aged 13 to 16 by a petitioner at least three years older but 21 or younger, felony use or dissemination of an image without consent, or a comparable out of state, federal or court martial offense, that the circumstances involved no child under 13, that the petitioner is not a recidivist sex offender, has substantially complied in good faith with registration and re-registration, and poses no risk or danger to the community.
Under section 22-24B-19.1 a Tier II petitioner shows the same things after at least 25 years, for incest, a comparable offense elsewhere or bestiality. Everyone else is Tier III and registers for life.
Reading a South Dakota result
A listing on the Attorney General's site means a registrant who re-registers with the police chief or sheriff in the birth month and six months later and answers the division's yearly form, with the tier telling the reader whether removal can ever be sought, after five years at Tier I, 25 at Tier II and never at Tier III; a person missing from the site may have had a suspended sentence or adjudication discharged, may be registered on a reservation whose data the reservation controls, or may have been removed by a circuit court.
The local police station or sheriff's office holds the fuller public record, the division in Pierre holds the file and the verification mail, and the circuit court of the county of residence hears the petition with the attorney general answering.
Questions about the South Dakota sex offender registry
Related South Dakota records
South Dakota's other public records guides on this site are the South Dakota arrest records guide for what a booking makes public, the South Dakota inmate search guide for the Department of Corrections adult lookup and the county jails, the South Dakota court records guide for the Unified Judicial System, and the South Dakota county pages for every sheriff and police department.