Person monitoring
Watch a person by name and DOB, why the DOB matters, and the confidence floor an alert clears.
Base URL https://api.offendersearch.appWatch one person by name and date of birth
A person monitor stands watch over one identity — a name, and, when you supply it, a date of birth — across the dataset named in product. Each day it runs the same matcher the search endpoint uses, and when a matching record appears, changes, or comes off a registry, it delivers an alert.
{
"product": "sex-offender",
"type": "person",
"person": { "firstName": "Jordan", "lastName": "Rivera", "dob": "1988-04-12" },
"minConfidence": "dob_match",
"channels": { "email": "alerts@example.com" }
}Supply a date of birth
A name on its own matches many people, so a name-only monitor is noisy — it will alert on every same-named record in the dataset. A date of birth is the strongest identity verifier, and supplying it is the single most effective way to keep a monitor precise. The matcher uses the same match strength labels as search: a dob you provide can produce a dob_match (the full date agrees) or, where a record publishes only a birth year, a year_match.
dob. Reserve a name-only monitor for the rare case where you genuinely want every same-named record and will triage the volume yourself.minConfidence — the alert floor
A person monitor only fires when identity matches at or above its confidence floor. minConfidence sets that floor.
| minConfidence | Fires on | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
dob_match default | A record whose full date of birth equals the one you registered. | You supplied a DOB and want the tightest, lowest-noise watch. |
year_match | dob_match, plus records that agree only on the birth year. | You want to catch records that publish a year but no full date — at the cost of more alerts. |
The matchLabel on every alert tells you which strength actually fired, so even under year_match you can tell a full-date confirmation from a year-only one. See Alerts.
What a person monitor watches
product: "sex-offender"— the sex-offender dataset. Live.product: "criminal"— the criminal-records dataset. Live.
Not a consumer report
A person monitor runs unattended, which makes the FCRA restriction especially important: its alerts may not be used for employment, tenant screening, credit, insurance, or any other FCRA-covered decision. The legal notice accompanies every alert.