iPhone App Reviews

Offender Locator vs. WatchOut! For Offenders

Michael (Admin) | Sep 25, 2009 Lifestyle, Utilities

User rating: (3 votes, average: 3.33 out of 5)

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Don’t you just love App Store icons? Here we have two apps that do the same exact thing, and one of them is all serious and a little creepy while the other is satanic and kind of funny. Even though Offender Locator and WatchOut! For Offenders serve the same purpose, they each do so in their own way and their own style.

WatchOut! For Offenders is obviously meant to be a little satirical and probably aimed at girls who might be wondering if their new beau is also a child molester. The devil theme continues in the app with map markers sporting devil horns and retro-horror typefaces sprinkled here and there, and it all serves as a nice little reminder of the kind of nightmare you could be in for if you start dating a convicted rapist. As for Offender Locator, to say that it has its own style is somewhat true, however for the most part it’s pretty plain jane.

But you’re not really looking at these apps for their art design, right? You wanna know which one does it right, which one delivers good info? Well, ONE of them is more accurate than the other…

Offender Locator is all about addresses. Find your perps by your current location, find them using an address in your Contacts, or enter a street address manually. The lack of name searching suggests that ThinAir Wireless believes you don’t know any sickos personally but you might have some living next door, and this is really Offender Locator’s second biggest weakness. Everything else it does, from listing the offender names/photos/offenses to mapping out their address, is just fine. But again, the address-only search isn’t this app’s biggest problem.

WatchOut! For Offenders takes a different approach. Instead of looking for specific street addresses, you get to search by zip code or… gasp! …by NAME! No wonder there’s a devil on their icon, this kind of search is way more fun. It’s pretty limited because the search only delivers 20 results, but as long as the person’s name isn’t Bob Smith I think you’ve got a good chance at finding your guy (or girl) if there’s a conviction in their past. WatchOut! isn’t as good at mapping the offenders as Offender Locator is, nor is it good at telling you what gross crimes people have committed, but it scores major points in getting the addresses correct!

I know, you already figured it out the moment I hinted at Offender Locator’s big mystery flaw. The information it serves up appears to be pretty good until you compare it to actual sex offender registries operated by state governments, and if you look at enough profiles you’ll eventually realize that Offender is kind of out of date. A lot of the addresses are accurate because the address hasn’t changed lately, but rapists and molesters move once in a while just like everyone else. WatchOut!, on the other hand, has yet to give me a bad address and I’ve looked at quite a few profiles.

Both apps have their shortcomings and are far from perfect but, on the grounds of accurate address information and the pure, evil fun of trying to sniff out other people’s dirty secrets, I’m declaring WatchOut! For Offenders the winner of this matchup. If Mobile Simplicity would just put some work into search and mapping, this could easily be worth the $1.99 that Offender Locator charges. It’s free right now, though, so have some fun with it, and who knows… it might even save you from an extremely unpleasant date.

iTunes Link – Offender Locator
iTunes Link – WatchOut! For Offenders
Version 2.2 (Offender)
Version 1.05 (WatchOut!)
Reviewed on iPhone 3G OS3.1

Tags: $1.99, crime, free, mature