Iowa Sex Offender Registry Search
Search Iowa's registry — and every other US registry at the same time. Continuously updated records with photographs, addresses, offenses and a link to the official registry entry for every match. Type a name; no code needed.
No card. No sales call. Free searches include a name and return up to 50 records each.
Try a live search
Search the Iowa registry — no account needed
A live demo returning sample data. Real, scored results across every US registry take a free account — 25 searches, no card.
Photographs and official records
Matches come back as people, not rows — the registry photograph, date of birth, addresses and offense, with a link to the official Iowa record so you can verify at the source.
The whole country in one search
People move. One search here covers Iowa and every other US registry at once, so a registration in Illinois and Minnesota shows up on someone now living in Des Moines.
Every search, kept
Each check is stored with the results you saw — an audit trail you can reopen, share with teammates, and stand behind later. Upload a CSV to screen a whole list in one pass.
Searching the Iowa state site vs searching here
Iowa's own public search is Iowa Sex Offender Registry (DPS) — free, official, and the right place for a one-off look at a single state. Here is what changes when you run the same search here instead.
| On the Iowa state site | Searching here | |
|---|---|---|
| Coverage per search | Iowa only. A registration in any other state never appears. | Every US registry at once — the 50 states, DC and the territories. 58 registries in one search. |
| Your search history | Nothing is saved. Checking the same person next month means starting over, with no record you ever looked. | Every search is stored with the results you saw — a real audit trail you can reopen. |
| Narrowing a common name | Whatever the search form offers, one attempt at a time. | Date of birth, age give-or-take, city, ZIP, street address — and misspellings caught when you want them. |
| Checking a whole list | One name at a time, by hand. | Upload a CSV and screen everyone in one pass. |
| Working as a team | No accounts, so no way to share what has been checked. | Add teammates to one workspace with a shared history. |
| Building it into your product | No API. | A full REST API on the same data, when you are ready for it. |
Start with 25 free searches — create an account and run the first one in under a minute.
The Iowa dataset, specifically
| Scope | Iowa is in every nationwide search by default, and one setting narrows to it alone — in the dashboard a dropdown, in the API jurisdictions: ["IA"]. |
|---|---|
| Date-of-birth matching | A date-of-birth criterion in Iowa resolves at full-date precision and returns dob_match. Match strength is a label on every record — dob_match — rather than a boolean, so you set your own threshold instead of inheriting ours. 39 of the 56 jurisdictions we cover resolve it the way Iowa does. |
| Best criteria to send | Send dob whenever you hold one — it is accepted in Iowa exactly as it is everywhere else, and it narrows rather than filters, so a record with thinner birth evidence still comes back on the name. In Iowa it is the strongest single narrowing criterion available, returning dob_match. |
| Location search | Narrow to a Iowa city or ZIP, or search a radius of up to 100 miles around a point. Addresses come back as typed entries — residence, secondary, employment, school — so a work address in Des Moines is distinguishable from a home address. |
| Freshness | Continuously updated, so a Regular result is close to live. Send a live block to re-verify named jurisdictions at the source in the request, and every record returns its own lastCheckedAt. |
| Verification | Every Iowa match links to the person's official entry on Iowa Sex Offender Registry (DPS), so any record can be confirmed at the official registry before you act on it. Registry data is not a consumer report, and decisions made on it are regulated in that use. |
How Iowa behaves next to the jurisdictions around it
Registration follows the person, not the state line, so screening that covers Iowa almost always has to read Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wisconsin in the same breath. One search here covers every row below at once.
| Jurisdiction | Date-of-birth match | matchState returned | Registered population |
|---|---|---|---|
| Iowa | Full date | dob_match | ≈ 7,140 |
| Illinois | Full date | dob_match | ≈ 44,200 |
| Minnesota | Date, or on the name | dob_match / no_dob_age_year | — |
| Missouri | Full date | dob_match | — |
| Nebraska | Full date | dob_match | — |
| South Dakota | Full date | dob_match | — |
| Wisconsin | Age precision | age_match | ≈ 27,400 |
The step-by-step procedure is on the Iowa search guide.
Building Iowa screening into your product?
The same dataset behind the search above is a full REST API: one request covers Iowa or all 58 jurisdictions, every match scored and labelled, per-source status on every response. A last name is the only required criterion. Send dob whenever you hold one — it is accepted in Iowa exactly as it is everywhere else, and it narrows rather than filters, so a record with thinner birth evidence still comes back on the name. In Iowa it is the strongest single narrowing criterion available, returning dob_match.
POST /v1/search
{
"query": {
"lastName": "Doe",
"firstName": "John",
"dob": "1979-04-02",
"state": "IA"
},
"jurisdictions": ["IA"]
}Swap city, zipcode or lat/lng/radiusMiles into the query for location searches. Parameters, response shape and error contract are in the API reference; bulk work is in batch and async & webhooks.
What comes back for IA
| Identity | legal name and name parts, every recorded alias, sex, race and ethnicity, and the matched name that actually answered your query |
|---|---|
| Birth evidence | dob, birthYear and age, each populated to the precision available, with dobPrecision naming that precision explicitly |
| Physical description | height, weight, eye and hair colour, and scars, marks and tattoos |
| Addresses | residence, plus secondary, employment and school addresses as separate typed entries, each with line1, city, county, state, ZIP and coordinates where geocoded |
| Offense | offense description, statute, conviction and offense dates, conviction county and state, case number, conviction count, and victim age and sex |
| Registration | tier or risk level, registration start and end dates, last verification, compliance and custody status, absconder and predator flags, and the registering agency |
| Media | images[], newest first, with images[0] as the current photograph |
| Match & provenance | matchConfidence, matchBasis[], matchState, and lastCheckedAt on every record |
The same shape in all 58 jurisdictions — the reason the Iowa integration is the nationwide integration. Field-by-field definitions are in the Record object.
Iowa offender search FAQ
How many registered sex offenders are there in Iowa?
Approximately 7,140 people are on the Iowa register. It is a population that moves continuously — people are added, reclassified and released from the requirement every week — so treat the figure as scale rather than as a fixed number, and run a search when you need an answer about a specific person.
Should I search Iowa's official registry site or here?
Iowa Sex Offender Registry (DPS) is free and covers Iowa. Searching here covers Iowa and every other US registry in the same search, keeps a stored history of every check you run with the results you saw, narrows by date of birth, age, city, ZIP or street address, takes a whole CSV list at once, supports teammates on one workspace, and has a full API behind it. If you check people more than once, or people who may have lived anywhere else, that is the difference that matters.
How do I search Iowa sex offender records by name and date of birth?
Type a last name and add whatever else you hold — first name, date of birth, city or ZIP. In the dashboard that is a form; through the API it is one request with jurisdictions: ["IA"] to scope the answer to Iowa. Send dob whenever you hold one — it is accepted in Iowa exactly as it is everywhere else, and it narrows rather than filters, so a record with thinner birth evidence still comes back on the name. In Iowa it is the strongest single narrowing criterion available, returning dob_match.
Does a Iowa search include people registered in other states?
It does when you let it. A search with no state scope runs across every US registry in one pass, which is how a prior registration in Illinois and Minnesota surfaces on someone now living in Iowa. Scoping to Iowa narrows deliberately to the IA roster — the two are one setting apart, and every response reports which registries answered.
What does a Iowa record contain?
Every IA record returns under the same normalized shape as the other 57 jurisdictions: identity and aliases, birth evidence with its precision stated, physical description, typed addresses, offense and conviction detail, tier or risk level, registration and compliance status, photographs newest-first, and match scoring on every record. One integration — or one dashboard — reads all of them.
Can I search Iowa by city or ZIP code?
Yes. Narrow to any Iowa city or ZIP, or sweep a radius of up to 100 miles around a point. Addresses come back as typed entries — residence, secondary, employment, school — so a work address in Des Moines reads differently from a home address, and each entry carries its own city, county, ZIP and coordinates where geocoded.
How current is a Iowa result?
The dataset is continuously updated, so a Regular result is close to live — and when a decision needs a current, moment-of-decision check, a live block re-verifies the named jurisdictions at the source in the same request. Every record returns its own lastCheckedAt, so currency is a value you read off the response rather than a claim you take on trust.
Get alerts for Iowa
We'll email you when a registered offender is added or moves near your Iowa address. A monitor is a recurring watch on our continuously updated data, checked every morning — set one on an address and radius, or on one person by name and date of birth.
Area monitoring is $10/mo; watching one person by name is $3/mo. Send the alerts to yourself and anyone else who should know, and turn a monitor off any time.
This is not a consumer report and must not be used for FCRA-governed hiring, tenancy, or credit decisions.
Iowa screening, by use case
The IA dataset is the same one behind every screening workflow we support. Each page below is the pattern for one of them — inline at onboarding, on a recurring cadence, or around a location.
Iowa city pages
Iowa county pages
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<a href="https://offendersearch.app/sex-offender-registry/iowa"><img src="https://offendersearch.app/badge/state/ia.svg" alt="Iowa registered sex offenders — Offendersearch" height="40"></a>Search Iowa — and everywhere else — right now
25 free searches, no card, no code. Photographs, official record links and a stored history from the first search. The full API is there when you want it.