Washington's registry is a sheriff's registry with a statewide window on it. Under RCW 9A.44.130 every adult who lives, studies, works or carries on a vocation in the state after a conviction for a sex offense or a kidnapping offense, or a finding of not guilty by reason of insanity for one, registers with the sheriff of the county of residence, or of the school or workplace for a nonresident, and the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs runs the statewide Washington Sex Offender Public Registry that RCW 4.24.550 requires, posting every Level III and Level II registrant and every registered kidnapping offender, and a Level I registrant only while out of compliance or without a fixed residence. For a Level III registrant the site carries the name, the relevant convictions, the address by hundred block on a map, a physical description and a photograph, and the public searches it by county, city, ZIP Code, last name and hundred block; Level II and non compliant Level I registrants get the same treatment where state and federal law allow. Information about a Level I registrant comes from the sheriff's office, which the association says can provide it on request, and a tip or correction about any registrant goes to the police through the button on the registrant's page.
The level is a local decision. The law enforcement agency responsible for the registrant's registration classifies the person after weighing the risk level set by the Department of Corrections, the Department of Social and Health Services or the Indeterminate Sentence Review Board, its own application of a risk assessment tool and whatever else it knows that bears on the risk, Level I for a low risk of sexually reoffending in the community at large, Level II for a moderate risk and Level III for a high risk, and it may let a registrant petition for a review of the level on its own terms; an agency that departs from the End of Sentence Review Committee's level tells the committee and the State Patrol why. Every sheriff's office that takes registrations is listed on the Washington county pages.
- Search: the statewide public registry run by the sheriffs and police chiefs, by county, city, ZIP Code, last name or hundred block, showing Level II and III registrants and kidnapping offenders; Level I only when non compliant or transient.
- Levels: the local agency sets Level I low, Level II moderate or Level III high from the state assessments and its own tool; Level III brings a community notification from the sheriff.
- Deadlines: register in person with the county sheriff within three business days of release, sentencing or moving in; a visitor staying ten days or more registers within three business days of arrival; a registrant without a fixed residence reports every week.
- Duration: indefinitely for an adult after a class A felony or a second sex or kidnapping offense, 15 years after a class B, ten after a class C; two or three years for a juvenile; life for a sexually violent predator.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Washington's own systems: the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs sex offender information page, the association's model policy on registration and community notification, effective November 20, 2024, RCW 9A.44.130 on registration procedures, RCW 9A.44.140 on the duration of the duty to register, RCW 4.24.550 on the release of information and the statewide website, the Sex Offender Policy Board study on sex offender housing, December 2014, each read on October 14, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
What the public may learn at each level
RCW 4.24.550 lets a public agency release information about a sex or kidnapping offender when disclosure is relevant and necessary to protect the public, scaled to the level of risk, the places where the offender lives, expects to live or is regularly found, and the community's need. For Level I the agency shares with other police agencies and with the school a registrant attends, and may answer a victim, a witness, a neighbor of the residence or anyone asking about a specific offender; for Level II it may also tell public and private schools, child day care centers, family day care providers, public libraries, businesses and organizations serving mainly children, women or vulnerable adults, and neighbors and community groups near the residence; for Level III it may tell the public at large, and it may do the same for a registrant who is homeless or transient, since a localized notice is not feasible.
The sheriff with whom a Level III registrant is registered releases a community notification that follows the state guidelines, and the association's page explains that not every city mails flyers and that a resident outside the radius chosen for a particular registrant hears nothing. Officials who classify or disclose in good faith are immune from damages, and the association refers any public records request for registry data it holds to the sheriff or police department within five business days.
Registering with the sheriff: the three business day clock
A registrant gives the sheriff the name and aliases, the residential address or where a person without one plans to stay, the date and place of birth, the employer, the crime with the date and place of conviction, the Social Security number, a photograph and fingerprints, and palm prints may be taken at any time. The deadlines in RCW 9A.44.130 all run three business days: from release for someone leaving state, county or federal custody, who also registers with the releasing agency at the moment of release; from sentencing for someone convicted but not confined; from establishing or re-establishing residence for someone arriving from another state or country; and from arrival for a visitor who intends to stay ten days or more, who registers a temporary address with the sheriff of each county without a photograph or prints.
A move within the county is reported by certified mail or in person within three business days, a move to a new county by registering with the new sheriff and notifying the old one in the same time, and a move out of state by registering there and writing to the last Washington sheriff within three business days. Anyone registering because of a juvenile adjudication also tells the sheriff three business days before starting classes or work at a college and after leaving.
A registrant without a fixed residence writes to the last sheriff within three business days of losing it, reports in person every week on the day the sheriff's office sets and keeps an account of where the week was spent, registers in a new county within three business days of being there for 24 hours, and under supervision registers in the county of supervision; the lack of a residence counts toward the risk level and allows disclosure to the public at large.
International travel takes a signed written notice, by certified mail or in person, at least 21 days before departure with the passport number and country, destination, itinerary, means and purpose of travel, which the sheriff passes to the United States Marshals Service, with 24 hours' notice allowed for emergencies and routine cross border work, and a cancellation reported within three days. A registrant applying to change a name files a copy with the sheriff and the State Patrol at least five days before the order, which a court may deny if it would interfere with law enforcement except for religious, cultural or marital reasons, and files the order within three business days.
Who registers: adults and the 2023 juvenile rules
An adult, meaning anyone 18 or older on the offense date or anyone younger who was sentenced in adult court, registers after any sex or kidnapping offense conviction. Since July 23, 2023 a juvenile registers only in listed cases: a class A or class B sex offense committed at 16 or 17 without a special sex offender disposition alternative, or with one that was revoked; rape in the first degree at 14 or 15; rape in the second degree at 14 or 15 without the alternative or with it revoked; a sex offense after an earlier adjudication or deferred disposition for one; an out of state, tribal or federal sex offense conviction; a kidnapping offense; or a court finding on clear, cogent and convincing evidence that a youth aged 14 through 17 with adjudications for multiple sex offenses against two or more victims presents a serious threat to public safety that registration would lessen.
The legislature wrote into the 2023 act its finding that treatment, not registration, is what makes communities safer from youth who offend, and that registration had left many adults on the registry for life because relief was too hard to obtain.
How long the duty lasts
RCW 9A.44.140 ties the duration to the conviction. An adult convicted in Washington of a class A felony, or of any sex or kidnapping offense with a prior one, registers indefinitely; an adult convicted of a class B felony with no prior stops 15 years after release from confinement or after the judgment if there was none, provided those 15 years passed in the community without a disqualifying offense; a class C felony, a violation of RCW 9.68A.090 or 9A.44.096 or an attempt, solicitation or conspiracy to commit a class C felony stops after ten such years.
A juvenile registering for a class A offense committed at 15, 16 or 17 stops three years after release or disposition and any other juvenile after two years. A federal, tribal or out of state conviction carries an indefinite duty unless the person is relieved under RCW 9A.44.142, a sexually violent predator under chapter 71.09 registers for life, a discharge of the sentence relieves nobody, a failure to register conviction does not count as a sex offense when counting priors, and a person found not guilty by reason of insanity is treated the same way.
Relief from the duty comes through the petitions in RCW 9A.44.142 and 9A.44.143 and, for juveniles, RCW 13.40.162, and the association's model policy walks sheriffs through relief by operation of law, relief with proof of a court determination for out of state convictions and the juvenile petitions.
Where a registrant may live
Washington puts no residence limit on a registrant who has finished supervision; the restrictions that exist, on where to live, contact with children, a curfew or alcohol, come from the Department of Corrections, Juvenile Rehabilitation or county probation while supervision lasts, and a violation can return the person to jail or prison, while RCW 9.94A.8554 covers the community protection zones. The local corrections office can say whether a person is still supervised, and the Sex Offender Policy Board's 2014 study on the release and housing of sex offenders is the state's own account of how the policies work; when it was written the state counted 18,576 registrants, 5,467 of them at Level II or III and 1,041 transient.
Seeing a registrant do something suspicious is a matter for the police or the sheriff, not for the observer.
Reading a Washington result
A listing on the statewide site means a Level II or III classification by the local agency, a kidnapping registration, or a Level I registrant out of compliance or without a home, with the address by hundred block; an absent name may be a compliant Level I registrant, whose record the sheriff holds, or a duty that ended by felony class or by a relief order. The sheriff of the county of residence answers both, and the Community Protection Act of 1990 is why the neighborhood hears about a Level II or III registrant's new address at all.
Questions about the Washington sex offender registry
Related Washington records
This site also covers Washington's other public records: the Washington arrest records guide for what a booking makes public, the Washington inmate search guide for the Department of Corrections and county jail lookups, the Washington court records guide for the courts' case search, and the Washington county pages for every sheriff.