California Megan's Law Sex Offender Scraper

California Megan's Law Sex Offender Scraper

Scrape California sex offender registry records by name, ZIP code, city, or county. Each record returns the offender's full name, address, physical description, offense details, and risk assessment. No API key required. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

The California Megan's Law website provides public access to sex offender information, but manually searching and compiling records is slow and error-prone. This Actor queries the official state registry directly, letting you search by last name, first name, ZIP code, city, or county, and returns structured data for every matching offender. It handles pagination and extracts every available field so you get a complete dataset in one run.

Who uses it	What they scrape California Megan's Law for
Background check services	Building or updating a database of registered offenders by geographic area
Property managers and landlords	Screening a neighborhood or applicant address against the registry
Journalists and researchers	Analyzing geographic distribution and recidivism patterns across California counties
Concerned parents and community groups	Checking a specific ZIP code or city for registered offenders near schools or parks

What it does

This Actor searches the California Megan's Law sex offender registry by name or location and returns each matching offender as a flat row with all publicly listed details.

• 🔍 Name search: Find offenders by last name, first name, or both, with partial matching on last name.
• 📍 Location filters: Narrow results to a specific ZIP code, city, or county anywhere in California.
• 📋 Structured output: Every record includes name, aliases, address, physical descriptors, offense codes, and risk designation.
• ⚙️ Configurable volume: Set a maximum number of offenders to collect, from a single record up to one million per run.

Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.

What you can do with California Megan's Law data

🏘️ Screen a rental applicant.

A property manager enters the applicant's ZIP code and last name to check if any registered offenders live at or near the rental address before approving the lease.

📊 Build a county-wide registry dataset.

A researcher runs the Actor for every California county, collecting all offender records to study geographic clustering and offense-type distribution across the state.

📰 Investigate a neighborhood.

A journalist enters a city and pulls all registered offenders to cross-reference with local school locations and produce a public-safety map for readers.

🔄 Refresh a background-check database.

A compliance firm runs weekly searches by county to detect newly registered offenders and update its internal watchlist with the latest state data.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
No API registration	Query the public registry directly with no account, no OAuth, and no rate-limit headaches
Complete records	Captures every field the state publishes: name, address, DOB, physical marks, offense history, and risk level
Bulk collection	Set a high maxItems and let the Actor paginate through all results automatically
Flexible search	Combine a last name with a city, or a ZIP code with a county, to zero in on exactly the records you need

How it compares

No other Store actor targets California Megan's Law the same way, so the honest comparison is with the alternatives teams actually weigh.

	California Megan's Law Sex Offender Scraper	Build it in-house	By hand
Setup	Run it now, zero config	Days of engineering	None, but hours per pull
When California Megan's Law changes	Maintained for you	You fix it	You re-learn the page
Proxies, retries, anti-bot	Built in	Your problem	Browser only
Output	Fixed JSON schema, CSV/Excel export	Whatever you build	Copy-paste
Cost	Pay per result	Engineering time	Analyst hours

Configure the run

Drive the Actor by last name, first name, ZIP code, city, or county, alone or in combination, and filters apply at the search level so only matching offenders reach your dataset. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

{
  "maxItems": 10,
  "lastName": "Smith"
}

A larger pull:

{
  "maxItems": 200,
  "lastName": "Smith"
}

Pricing

Pay-per-result: $0.021 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.

Results collected	Approximate cost
100 results	$2.10
1,000 results	$21.00
10,000 results	$210.00

New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.

Free users

Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. Upgrade your Apify plan to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.

Run it

1. Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
2. Open the California Megan's Law Sex Offender Scraper.
3. Set your inputs and any filters, then click Start.
4. Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the Dataset tab.

Run it programmatically through the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items) or the ApifyClient for JavaScript and Python.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Give an AI agent live access to California Megan's Law through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:

claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/meganlaw-sex-offenders-scraper"

Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.

Troubleshooting

Why am I getting no results?

The registry requires at least one search field. Check that you have entered a valid last name, first name, ZIP code, city, or county. Try broadening your search by using only a last name or only a county, then narrow down once you confirm results exist.

The Actor stopped before reaching my maxItems limit.

This means the registry returned fewer matching offenders than your limit. The Actor collected every available result. Try a broader search, such as a shorter last name or a larger geographic area, to find more records.

I entered a ZIP code but got offenders from a different city.

Some ZIP codes span multiple cities or unincorporated areas. The registry returns all offenders within that ZIP code boundary. Add a city filter to narrow results to a specific municipality.

The run is taking a long time.

Large searches with high maxItems values paginate through many pages. The Actor respects the site's response time to avoid being blocked. Reduce maxItems or narrow your search criteria for faster runs.

Some fields are empty in my results.

The California Megan's Law registry does not publish every field for every offender. Some records may lack a photo, aliases, or specific physical descriptors. Empty fields reflect what the state has chosen to disclose.

FAQ

Question	Answer
What data does this Actor return for each offender?	It returns every field the California Megan's Law site publishes: full name, known aliases, date of birth, physical description including height, weight, eye and hair color, scars and marks, current address, offense codes and descriptions, conviction dates, and risk assessment designation.
Do I need to provide all search fields?	No. You must provide at least one search field, but you can combine any of them. For example, enter only a ZIP code to get all offenders in that area, or combine a last name with a city to narrow results.
Is this Actor legal to use?	Yes. The California Megan's Law website is a public registry mandated by state law. The information is publicly available, and this Actor accesses it the same way a browser would. You are responsible for complying with all applicable laws regarding use of the data.
How many records can I collect in one run?	You set the limit with the maxItems field, from 1 up to 1,000,000. The Actor stops when it reaches your limit or when there are no more matching results.
Can I search by offense type or risk level?	The California Megan's Law search form does not offer filters for offense type or risk level. You can search by name or location, and the Actor returns all matching offenders. You can filter by offense or risk level after export using your own tools.
Does this cover the entire United States?	No. This Actor scrapes only the California Megan's Law registry. Each state maintains its own sex offender registry with different websites and search interfaces.
What formats can I export the data to?	Apify supports exporting your dataset to CSV, JSON, Excel, XML, and RSS. You can download the file or push it to a cloud storage integration like Google Drive or S3.
How often is the registry data updated?	The California Department of Justice updates the Megan's Law website regularly. Each run of this Actor pulls the latest data available at that moment from the live site.
Can I schedule this Actor to run automatically?	Yes. Apify lets you schedule runs on a recurring basis, such as daily or weekly, so you can monitor changes in a specific area over time.
What happens if my search returns no results?	The run completes with an empty dataset. Check your spelling and try broadening the search, for example by removing the first name or using a larger geographic area.

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Browse the full ParseForge collection for more scrapers.

🆘 Need help? Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.

⚠️ Disclaimer. This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by California Department of Justice. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.