A new alert system to notify people about registered sex offenders in their neighborhoods is available in three states and is scheduled to be phased in across the country during the coming eight weeks.

SCAN USA Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Sharp Holding Corp. announced that it is expanding its SCAN service to alert the public of registered sex offender movement. The new alert feature is already available in California, Florida and Texas. SCAN is provided to both public safety agencies and citizens completely free of charge through corporate sponsorships and a distribution agreement with SBC Communications Inc.

Users register by ZIP code and choose where the alerts should be sent – personal computers, mobile devices such as cell phones, or fax. SCAN also provides a National Sex Offender Registry that can be queried by ZIP code for 49 states and Washington, DC. Oregon currently does not have a sex offender registry available online.

The system notifies registered users when a state’s sex offender registry indicates that a convicted offender is using an address within the ZIP code specified by the user.

“This is public information, but many don’t know where to look or rarely take the time to go through the volumes of information available in states’ online registries,” said Russ Krauss, SCAN chief operating officer, in a news release.

The SCAN system monitors those sources and provides updated information on a daily basis.

“That does not mean you’ll be getting sex offender notices everyday; it means we’ll be watching the states’ registries for your area everyday and alert you if there is a change.”

To register for the free service, visit www.scanusa.com to begin receiving the alerts.