The Guilford County Sheriff’s Office Sex Offender Registration Section registers all sex offenders that live in Guilford County that are required to register by North Carolina Law. The Sex Offender Section registers; confirms addresses of registered offenders and arrests and prosecutes those offenders in violation of North Carolina General Statutes

The North Carolina Sex Offender and Public Protection Registry was established in January 1996 due to the enactment of Article 27A of Chapter 14 of the North Carolina General Statutes (NCGS 14-208.5). This law requires a person who is a resident of North Carolina and who has a reportable conviction to maintain registration with the sheriff of the county where the person resides. If the person moves to North Carolina from outside this State, the person shall register within 10 days of establishing residence in this State, or whenever the person has been present in the State for 15 days, whichever comes first. If the person is a current resident of North Carolina, the person shall register:

• Within 3 days of release from a penal institution or arrival in a county to live outside a penal institution on or after January 1, 1996; or
• Immediately upon conviction for a reportable offense where an active term of imprisonment was not imposed on or after January 1, 1996.

When the offender is released from prison, local jail, or convicted in court with no active time, the reportable offender information is entered into a statewide registry as a "pending" registration status. If the reportable offender does not register with the county sheriff within the required time period, the statewide system will flag the record as a "Failure to Register" which assists law enforcement officials in tracking and requiring offenders to register. Once the offender has registered with the appropriate county sheriff, the registration information is updated in the statewide Sex Offender and Public Protection Registry by the registering county sheriff. This information is immediately made available to the public via the Internet at address NC Sex Offenderand Public ProtectionRegistry or by submitting a written request to the appropriate county sheriff for a county wide registry.