|
This site uses Google Maps Technology as a powerful and useful tool for displaying the residential and work locations
of registered sex offenders across the United States. If you've never used Google Maps before, the following will help you get started
on how to use the maps within the Predator Aware website, and give some pointers on how to use other features within the site.
- Google Maps are interactive (a map is not a simple static image), in other words, they respond to the input from your mouse,
such as clicking and dragging your mouse anywhere within the map area will cause the map to scroll in the direction you are dragging it.
Similarly, clicking the arrow buttons in the upper left corner of the map will move the map in the direction of the arrow you clicked.
- The map gives you the ability to zoom in or out at any location. To zoom into a particular location on the map, simply double-click
the location to center it on the map. Then, using the zoom buttons, zoom into the location by clicking the [+] button, or zoom out by
clicking the [-] button. The current zoom level is indicated by the zoom bar between the [+] and [-] buttons. There are 18 zoom levels with
the nearest zoom level being at the top of the bar, and the furtherst being at the bottom. Alternatively you can jump to any zoom level by clicking
on the zoom bar itself. For predator Aware maps, when searching by location, offender markers are only visible in the highest 3 zoom levels of the
map as indicated by the marker at the top of the zoom bar.
- Yellow map markers show up at locations you're performed a search for, such as an address, or zip code etc.. Orange markers indicate where
the residential or work locations are of registered sex offenders. Clicking on an orange map marker will show you the detailed photo and information
about the offender corresponding with that marker.
- When performing a location search, and the map zoom level is 3 or below, offender map markers will be viewable if there are any offenders living
or working within the viewable area of the map. The displaying of offender map markers is dynamic and will update automatically as you move the map around.
A 'Loading...Please Wait.' indicator will appear at the top of the map whenever new offender data is being downloaded to be displayed on the map.
- Often, more than one offender will live at a single address, such as an apartment complex, causing multiple markers to be stacked,
indicated by a darker marker shadow. In these cases, offender details can be viewed by clicking the small offender photos listed in the offender records
to the left of the map.
- The simplest way to view offenders by location is to type in a full or partial address or location name into the search box above the map.
If the address or location can be successfully determined, a yellow marker will appear at the location and the map will automatically center itself and zoom
into that location. Example address formats that are acceptable are: 'Street Address, City, State Zip', 'City, State Zip', 'City, State' or simply 'Zip'.
- To perform a search by name, click on the word 'Name' in the words [or search by Name] above the search text box. Alternatively, if searching by name
and you would like to search by location instead, click on the work 'Location' in the words [or search by Location] above the search text box.
When searching by name, enter any number of letters of the individuals first name, followed by their last name, such as 'John Doe', or 'J Doe'. Alternatively,
you can also search using the lastname first, with the last and first names being seperated by a comma such as 'Doe, John' or 'Doe, J'. Any offenders
matching the name will be displayed in the offender list, with corresponding map markers indicating their locations on the US map.
- In order to accomodate the printing of any given map view and offender list, we've provided an alternate view on the main page called the
'Report View'. This view moves the map to the upper left of the page and fixes it's size and moves the full viewable offender list below (along with a legend).
In Internet Explorer, printing the page in this format will print the map on page 1 and the offenders on subsequent pages. The map is still fully useable in
view, and moving the map around will still update the list of offenders shown within the viewable area of the map. To switch back to the standard view, click the
'Standard View' link above the map.
- Unmapped offenders are offenders for which a reliable Latitude and Longitude could not be determined based on their residential or work address.
Unmapped offenders who live in certain zip codes will show up in the offender list when the map bounds are within their zip code boundaries. To view an
unmapped offender's details, click on the unmapped offender's photo in the offender list.
- A legend explaining the map markers, letters, address colors and map accuracy levels can be accessed anytime by clicking on the [?] at the top of
the offender list.
|
|
