11:15 AM PDT on Friday, June 30, 2006

By KRISTINA BRENNEMAN, kgw.com Staff

A new Web site that helps people track dangerous sex predators in their neighborhood topped 1 million hits Thursday, the first day it was available to the public, police said.

KGW photo

One of the state's sexual predators listed online.

As of Friday morning, the state's sex offender Web site had approximately 1.18 million page hits, said Lt. Gregg Hastings, a spokesman for Oregon State Police. 

Oregon State Police anticipate that number will reach 1.4 million page hits by the end of the first full day of operation, he said.

A "page hit" occurs when any one person views any single page on the website. 

Many parents said the Web site, available in almost every other state, was long overdue. At this point, an estimated 700 registered sex offenders -- considered the most dangerous -- will be featured on the new Web site.

“There are over 14,000 registered sex offenders in Oregon and over half are out in the community,” said state Rep. Jerry Krummel, who led the effort to create the Web site.

One of Krummel's constituents in Wilsonville, Connie Hollon, asked him to change state law.

"After several calls and e-mails to the state police I got angry when I found out there was no Web site," she said. "I hope other parents will use this Web site to educate themselves against some of the dangers in their neighborhoods."

For the past several years, the Oregon State Police have provided printed lists of sex offender information to the public by request, he said.

The new Web site will be updated daily and available to anyone with Internet access.