New Castle County Sex Offender Registry
New Castle County residents can search for registered sex offenders through the Delaware State Police online portal, which covers the entire county and is free to use. The registry lists Tier II and Tier III sex offenders by name, address, and photo, and you can search by street address or city name. New Castle County is the most populous county in Delaware, which means it also has the largest share of registered sex offenders in the state. This page covers how to search the registry, where sex offenders in New Castle County must register, and what local agencies are involved in monitoring and compliance.
New Castle County Sex Offender Registry Overview
Search New Castle County Sex Offenders
The main tool for finding sex offenders in New Castle County is the Delaware Sex Offender Central Registry, run by the Delaware State Police State Bureau of Identification. The search is free. No account or login is needed. You can search by a person's name, by city, or by street address and a set radius. The site also has a map view that places markers for each registered offender in the area you search. Results show the person's photo, current address, tier level, and the offense that triggered registration.
Only Tier II and Tier III sex offenders appear in public searches. Tier I offenders, who are considered low risk, are not visible through the online portal. Their records stay with law enforcement only. This applies countywide in New Castle County, just as it does across the rest of Delaware. If you are searching for someone and do not find them, it is possible they are a Tier I registrant, or that they are not registered in Delaware at all. The registry is updated nightly, so changes in address or status from the day before may not yet appear.
The registry also lets you sign up for email alerts. When a new sex offender registers an address in your area, or when an existing registrant moves, you receive an email. This feature works by ZIP code. It is a simple way to stay informed without having to check the site regularly. For a broader search that covers other states, the National Sex Offender Public Website pulls registry data from all 50 states, including Delaware.
New Castle County criminal records and registry information are available through the state portal. The Delaware Sex Offender Central Registry is the most reliable starting point for any search in the county.
The registry search returns results quickly and includes enough detail to confirm whether a specific person is on the New Castle County sex offender list.
New Castle County Sex Offender Registration Location
Registered sex offenders who live in New Castle County must report in person at Delaware State Police Troop 2 in Newark. The address is 100 Corporal Stephen J Ballard Way, Newark, DE. This is where the Delaware State Police Sex Offender Apprehension and Registration unit, known as S.O.A.R., handles New Castle County registrations. The Troop 2 registration hours are Tuesday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. The office closes for lunch from 11:45 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. No registration service is provided on Mondays.
If you show up on a Monday or outside those hours, you will not be able to register. This matters because failing to register on time is a Class G felony under Delaware law. Offenders with fixed addresses must update any change in residence within 3 business days. Those who are new to Delaware must register within 3 business days of establishing a residence in the state. Out-of-state visitors who stay for 7 or more days, or who accumulate 30 or more days within a year, must also register within 3 days of arrival.
The DSP page below details the S.O.A.R. unit's updated hours of operation for all three Delaware counties, including the Troop 2 location that serves New Castle County registrants.
Check the DSP hours page before you go, as the S.O.A.R. unit has updated its schedule in the past and may do so again.
Homeless sex offenders in New Castle County follow a stricter check-in schedule than those with a fixed address. Tier III homeless registrants must verify every 7 days. Tier II homeless registrants verify every 30 days. Tier I homeless registrants verify every 90 days. This is handled at the same Troop 2 location.
Note: Troop 2 in Newark is the only registration site for New Castle County, so all registrants in the county must report to that single location regardless of where they live within the county.
Law Enforcement and Sex Offender Monitoring
New Castle County sex offender monitoring involves several agencies working in coordination. The Delaware State Police S.O.A.R. unit handles registration and compliance checks statewide, but local departments also play a direct role. The New Castle County Police Department, located at 3601 N. DuPont Highway, New Castle, DE 19720, works with DSP to track registrants within unincorporated parts of the county. Their main line is (302) 573-2800, and the Records Unit can be reached at (302) 395-8171, Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The Wilmington Police Department handles monitoring within the city of Wilmington, which has the highest concentration of registered sex offenders in the county.
The Delaware Criminal Justice Information System, known as DELJIS, maintains the central repository for criminal justice records in the state. Their office is at the Carvel State Office Building, 820 N. French Street, Wilmington, DE 19801, phone (302) 577-8787. DELJIS is how law enforcement agencies across New Castle County share data on registered offenders, criminal history, and outstanding warrants. It is not a public-facing search tool, but it powers the backend of many of the checks that police conduct.
Court records for New Castle County sex offenders are held at the Delaware Superior Court, New Castle County, located at the Leonard L. Williams Justice Center, 500 N. King Street, Wilmington, DE 19801. Their phone is (302) 255-0800. Superior Court handles felony-level sex offense cases, and their records include charging documents, plea agreements, sentencing orders, and any registration conditions imposed by the court.
The New Castle City Police department also maintains a list of important public safety links, including direct access to the sex offender registry. You can find those resources at the New Castle City Police important links page.
Local police departments in New Castle County are an important part of the monitoring network, especially in cities like New Castle and Wilmington where registrant concentrations are higher.
Sex Offender Tiers and Verification in New Castle County
Delaware assigns every registered sex offender to one of three tiers based on the nature of their offense and the risk they pose. This system applies uniformly across all counties, including New Castle County. Tier I is the lowest risk level, requiring 15 years of registration and annual verification. These records are not public. Tier II is the moderate risk level, requiring 25 years of registration and verification every 6 months. Tier III is the highest risk level and requires lifetime registration, with verification every 90 days. Tier II and Tier III offenders appear in the public registry. Tier I records are accessible to law enforcement only.
New Castle County has the largest share of Delaware's homeless registered sex offenders. According to research published in the National Library of Medicine, a study covering 2021 to 2023 found 61 homeless registered sex offenders in New Castle County, which was 50.8% of the statewide total. Wilmington, which sits in New Castle County, had 34 homeless registrants on its own, accounting for 28.3% of all homeless registrants statewide. The ZIP code 19801 in Wilmington had the highest homelessness rate of any ZIP code in the state at 11.5%. These numbers matter because homeless registrants must check in more often, and their patterns of movement are harder to track in the registry.
The statutes that govern tier classification in Delaware are found at Title 11, Section 4120 and Section 4121 of the Delaware Code. Section 4120 establishes the registry itself and the requirement that it be publicly accessible. Section 4121 defines which offenses trigger registration. Courts and the Department of Justice use these statutes to assign tiers at sentencing.
The city of Newark also publishes a useful overview for residents. The Newark synopsis of Delaware's sex offender law breaks down registration requirements, tier definitions, and what the public can and cannot access through the registry.
Note: Tier III sex offenders in New Castle County who are homeless must verify their registry information every 7 days rather than the standard 90-day schedule.
New Castle County Criminal Records Access
Sex offense convictions in New Castle County generate court records that are held at the Delaware Superior Court and by the State Bureau of Identification. To get a certified criminal history for an individual, you submit a request to the State Bureau of Identification, also called the SBI. The fee is $52 for a certified criminal history report. Processing can take several weeks. The SBI is part of the Delaware State Police and handles both in-state and out-of-state criminal history requests. Their location for New Castle County residents is the Delaware State Police headquarters, though the SBI operates its own offices as well.
Court case files for sex offense cases in New Castle County are held at the Superior Court. Felony case files are kept for 25 years for Class A and Class B felonies and for 15 years for Class C through G felonies. Sex offender registration records are kept separately and for longer: lifetime for Tier III, 25 years for Tier II, and 15 years for Tier I. This means the registration record often outlasts the underlying court file. If you are trying to trace someone's sex offense history, the registry and the SBI criminal history report are both useful, and they serve different purposes.
New Castle County public records, including those related to sex offender cases, can also be accessed through the Delaware State Police website and through court portals maintained by the state judiciary. The county holds a large volume of records due to its population size and the concentration of state courts in Wilmington.
New Castle County has more registered sex offenders than the other two Delaware counties combined, which reflects both its population size and the concentration of urban areas within it.
For background checks involving children, the Delaware Office of Child Care Licensing requires a comprehensive check that includes the sex offender registry as part of the review process for anyone with unsupervised access to children in a licensed setting.
Reporting and Community Safety in New Castle County
If you believe a registered sex offender in New Castle County has failed to update their address or has otherwise violated their registration requirements, you can report it directly to the Delaware State Police S.O.A.R. unit. The contact number is (302) 739-5882. You can also call (302) 672-5306. Anonymous tips can be submitted through Delaware Crime Stoppers at (800) 847-3333, or by texting "DSP" to 274637. The S.O.A.R. unit actively searches for non-compliant registrants and posts notifications on the Delaware State Police website when a registrant is wanted for a registration violation.
Community notification in New Castle County works on two tracks. First, the public registry itself is searchable and free. Second, for Tier III offenders, the state sends direct notifications to neighbors in the immediate area when a high-risk offender registers an address near them. Schools and licensed child care providers in New Castle County receive separate notifications under Senate Bill 66, which was passed in 2023. Under Senate Bill 66, schools are no longer required to maintain physical binders of sex offender records. Instead, they must direct staff, parents, and guardians to the registry website and the State Bureau of Identification for up-to-date information. Schools with websites must post the registry URL and contact details online.
For searches that go beyond Delaware, the National Sex Offender Public Website covers all 50 states and U.S. territories. Delaware participates in this system, and New Castle County offenders who are listed in the state registry are also searchable through the national tool. This is useful when you need to check whether someone has a sex offense record in another state before they moved to New Castle County.
Note: The Delaware State Police post public notifications whenever a registered sex offender in New Castle County is out of compliance, so checking the DSP newsroom periodically is a useful supplement to the registry search.
Cities in New Castle County
New Castle County contains Delaware's largest city and several other communities with their own local police departments and court resources. The cities below have individual pages with local sex offender registry information, courthouse contacts, and law enforcement details.
Nearby Counties
Delaware has two other counties. Both have their own registration sites and law enforcement contacts for sex offender monitoring.