NSOPW Offender Search Scraper

This Apify Actor allows you to search U.S. public sex offender records from the National Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW) for background checks, public records research, and offender registry access.

Features

• Name Search: Search by first name and last name with optional city/county filters.
• ZIP Search: Search by up to 5 ZIP codes.
• Geographic Search: Search by latitude, longitude, and radius (1, 2, or 3 miles).
• Filter Metadata: Get available jurisdictions and search filters.
• Probe: Lightweight API health check.
• Multi-Method HTTP Fallback: Automatically tries multiple HTTP clients (cloudscraper, curl_cffi, httpx, tls_client) for maximum success rate.
• Proxy Support: Integrated Apify proxy support with country filtering.
• Retry Logic: Automatic retry with exponential backoff for blocked requests.
• Standardized Infrastructure: Built on shared apify-wave1 runtime for consistency across actors.

Operation Guide

1. Probe

Run a lightweight health check against the NSOPW backend.

2. Get Filters

Retrieve available jurisdictions, radius states, and distance options from the NSOPW search page.

3. Name Search

Provide firstName and lastName to search for offenders. Optionally filter by city, county, or specific jurisdictions.

4. ZIP Search

Provide up to 5 ZIP codes to search for offenders in those areas.

5. Geographic Search

Provide latitude, longitude, and distance (1, 2, or 3 miles) along with jurisdictions to search within a radius.

6. Get Specific Offender

Provide offenderUri or offenderId from a search result to retrieve full details for a specific offender.

Examples

You can copy and paste these JSON inputs into the Apify Actor's "JSON" editor for quick testing.

Probe Test

{
  "operation": "probe"
}

Get Search Filters

{
  "operation": "search_filters",
  "refresh": false
}

Name Search (Alabama)

Returns offenders named "John Smith" in Alabama.

{
  "operation": "search",
  "firstName": "john",
  "lastName": "smith",
  "jurisdictions": ["AL"],
  "limit": 10
}

Name Search with City Filter

Returns offenders named "John Smith" in Montgomery, Alabama.

{
  "operation": "search",
  "firstName": "john",
  "lastName": "smith",
  "city": "montgomery",
  "jurisdictions": ["AL"],
  "limit": 10
}

ZIP Search

Returns offenders in specific ZIP codes.

{
  "operation": "search",
  "zip": ["90210", "90211"],
  "limit": 20
}

Geographic Search

Returns offenders within 1 mile of a location in Alabama.

{
  "operation": "search",
  "latitude": 32.3617,
  "longitude": -86.2792,
  "distance": 1,
  "jurisdictions": ["AL"],
  "limit": 10
}

Get Specific Offender

Retrieves full details for a specific offender using their URI.

{
  "operation": "item",
  "offenderUri": "https://example-offender-url.com/details",
  "firstName": "john",
  "lastName": "smith",
  "jurisdictions": ["AL"]
}

Input Fields

Field	Required	Description	Example
operation	Required	Operation to perform: probe, search_filters, search, or item	search
firstName	Optional	First name for name search (requires lastName)	john
lastName	Optional	Last name for name search (requires firstName)	smith
city	Optional	City filter for name search	montgomery
county	Optional	County filter for name search	montgomery
zip	Optional	ZIP codes (up to 5)	["90210", "90211"]
jurisdictions	Optional	Jurisdiction codes (e.g., AL, NY, CHEROKEE)	["AL", "NY"]
latitude	Optional	Latitude for geographic search (-90 to 90)	32.3617
longitude	Optional	Longitude for geographic search (-180 to 180)	-86.2792
distance	Optional	Radius in miles for geographic search: 1, 2, or 3	1
limit	Optional	Max offenders to return (1-500)	50
includeQueryJurisdictions	Optional	Include full query.jurisdictions list	false
includeJurisdictionStatus	Optional	Include jurisdiction_status rows	false
jurisdictionStatusNonZeroOnly	Optional	Keep only jurisdiction_status rows with records > 0	true
refresh	Optional	Force refresh filter metadata for search_filters	false
offenderUri	Optional	Exact offender URL (for item operation)	https://example.com/offender
offenderId	Optional	Offender ID from offender_uri (for item operation)	12345
proxy	Optional	Proxy mode: direct, apify, custom, auto	auto
customProxyUrl	Optional	Custom proxy URL if mode is custom	http://proxy.example.com
proxyCountry	Optional	Country for proxy (e.g., US)	US

Output Fields

Each offender item includes:

• id: Offender ID or URI
• slug: Offender slug
• full_name: Full name
• first_name: First name
• middle_name: Middle name
• last_name: Last name
• aliases: List of known aliases
• age: Age
• gender: Gender
• absconder: Absconder status
• jurisdiction_id: Jurisdiction identifier
• registry_domain: Registry domain
• source_url: URL to offender details
• image: Main offender image
• images: List of offender images
• locations: List of locations (residence, employment, school)
• city: Primary city
• county: Primary county
• state: Primary state
• zip_code: Primary ZIP code
• latitude: Primary latitude
• longitude: Primary longitude

Proxy & Bot Protection

NSOPW works reliably in direct mode. Proxy fallback is available if needed.

• Auto: Automatically handles proxy selection (currently defaults to direct mode).
• Direct: Bypasses proxy.
• Custom: Uses a provided custom proxy URL.
• Apify: Uses Apify proxy with country filtering.

The actor includes automatic retry logic with exponential backoff for blocked requests (403, 429, 502, 503) and invalid JSON responses.

Pricing

• Actor Start: $0.005 per run
• Dataset Item: $0.0004 per item

Free/trial users are limited to 10 result requests per day.

Limitations

• This scraper is unofficial and not affiliated with NSOPW or the U.S. Department of Justice.
• NSOPW may change their API structure without notice.
• Some jurisdictions may be offline or return no results.
• Geographic search requires at least one jurisdiction to be specified.
• High-volume scraping may trigger rate limiting or blocking.
• Name search requires both first_name and last_name.

Disclaimer

This scraper is unofficial and not affiliated with the National Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW) or the U.S. Department of Justice. Users are responsible for complying with NSOPW's terms of service and applicable laws. Data provided by this scraper is for informational purposes only and should not be used for discriminatory or unlawful purposes.