Offender Locator iPhone app makes a partial comeback

After Apple'ssurprise removal from the App Store last week of a sex-offender-location app called Offender Locator, the app is back in the store again.

In an interview with Trip Wakefield of ThinAir Wireless, the maker of Offender Locator, Wakefield confirms that the app was pulled for legal reasons. According to Wakefield, ThinAir was successful in quickly contacting Apple, which had removed the app because it was possible that the app violated California law. Once ThinAir removed access to any data pertaining to the state of California from the app's database, the change took place immediately for all previous and future purchasers of the app.

ThinAir is currently working with an attorney licensed in California to determine whether or not Offender Violator breaks any laws in that state. In the event that it doesn't, customers will regain access to the offender data in California. In the meantime, California users are able to run the free version with access to California sex offenders, but with some limits.

Wakefield also told us that the price of Offender Locator will jump from $0.99 to $1.99 once the most recent version of the app is approved by Apple. The new version of the app will include some enhancements to the map view and shows offenders within a 5-mile radius, but still doesn't support some of the interactivity we wished for previously. It will, however, allow you to scroll through the list of offenders from start to finish in the map view while displaying the photo, name, and address of each one.

Wakefield is hoping that the renewed availability of the app will have a positive impact on the organization known as Stop Child Predators, since ThinAir Wireless is donating 10 percent of the version 2.0 proceeds to this and other, similar organizations.

Sales of the app have rebounded since the original App Store delisting and at press time the paid app is currently ranked at number nine, and the free version at number eight.