Knowing where a criminal works, resides or lurks is vital to the safety of all Hoosiers.
For example, the Indiana Sex and Violent Offender Registry has been a helpful online source for families who want to protect their children or employees who want a safe workplace.
By clicking online, a computer user can find the residence or worksite of a convicted sex offender.
The registry does not list felons convicted of child abuse.
And that is information Hoosier parents should want, particularly anyone seeking child care.
State Sen. Carlin Yoder, R-Middlebury, has introduced a bill in the Indiana General Assembly that would create a registry listing people convicted of a crime involving child abuse.
Access would be open to the public.
It would become another tool in protecting Hoosiers.
Indeed, the genesis of the bill comes from a horrific case involving the death of a 19-month-old boy.
Angie Garza lost her grandson, Kirk Coleman, when he died in October 2014 while in the care of an Elkhart County woman. Garza later learned the woman was previously charged with battering a toddler and temporarily barred from caring for children.
Garza wants that tragedy to never happen again.
The registry would require data input through the Indiana State Police and the Indiana Department of Correction, as well as other law enforcement or judicial agencies.
Costs to administer the registry would require data entry as well as staffers constantly maintaining the site and ensuring that erroneously placed names are removed quickly from the database.
An erroneous listing could indeed harm a reputation. That's why the state must be cautious in implementing the registry.
But the benefits and the possibility of saving children's lives may outweigh such a dismaying problem.
No one is saying that a check should be run on everyone in one's neighborhood; that leads only to gossip.
But rather Hoosiers would be able to conduct an online check of caregivers. They would know, by checking a nearby address, if it's safe to leave a child at a bus stop. Or whether their child should be playing in a unfamiliar neighbor's yard.
A registry of people convicted of child abuse would be a valuable tool that might prevent the heartbreak experience by Angie Garza.