About the South Dakota Sex Offender Registry

South Dakota has over 1700 registered sex offenders.

The Division of Criminal Investigation is mandated by state and federal laws to establish and maintain a registry of convicted sexual offenders living in South Dakota (SDCL 22-22-31 through 22-22-41). The purpose of the sex offender registry is to track the location of a class of offenders that, by nature of their crimes, pose an ongoing risk to public safety.  

The state Sex Offender Registry (SOR) responsibility was assigned to the ID Section since its creation in 1994 because it is fingerprint supported information.  Offenders' fingerprints, photos, DNA indicator if the Forensic Lab has a sample on file, registration and related information forms are housed at the DCI.

In addition to these manual files, the state SOR is completely automated and available to criminal justice entities nationwide using standard telecommunication formats.  

The DCI indexes its offenders in the FBI's National Sex Offender Registry (NSOR) as well. Any criminal justice agency running checks in the FBI systems will be notified that South Dakota has that subject registered as a sex offender.  

The registration law was amended in 1995 to become retro-active so anyone residing in South Dakota with a felony sex crime conviction, including out-of-state or federally-convicted sex offenders, must register for their lifetime.  This law was amended again in 1997, mandating registration of certain juveniles.  

Juvenile registration is not retro-active, and they must be fifteen years of age or older.  A court order can remove these juveniles after ten years in the registry.

Sex offenders who fail to register or update address information can be charged with a misdemeanor and subsequent compliance violations are felonies.  Registration information is confidential at the state level, but is public information at the local level.  Contact your police department or sheriff's office for dissemination details. Some local registering agencies have established a "link" to their sex offender website. Select a county and "Law Enforcement Info" for possible website links.