Enhance Ohio's Sex Offender Monitoring Through Information Sharing and Interagency Support

The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 (AWA) (Pub. L. 109-248, 42 U.S.C. § 16901, et seq) authorizes the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART) to administer sex offender management grants. These grants assist state, local and tribal jurisdictions in developing and/or enhancing sex offender registration and notification programs that support substantial implementation of Title I of the AWA, known as the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). SORNA was enacted to protect the public from convicted sex offenders and offenders against children by establishing a comprehensive national system for the registration of those offenders.

Since reaching substantial implementation of SORNA in 2009, the State of Ohio has fallen behind on the monitoring of sex offenders in their state. The growing number of sex offenders requiring monitoring in Ohio has doubled in the last few years and due to many layoffs in Ohios law enforcement agencies, monitoring the growing population of sex offenders in the state has become increasingly difficult. The purpose of this project is to enhance Ohios sex offender monitoring through interagency information sharing, and state of the art efficient tools to allow for the most comprehensive and effective monitoring possible. The project proposes to implement a callback system tied to Ohios electronic Sex Offender Registration and Notification system (eSORN) that will serve as an early warning for sheriffs in cases where the offender may have become noncompliant with reporting requirements, initiate a pilot program between the local law enforcement community, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation to retrieve Tier III offenders who are noncompliant or living out of the county or state, and conduct training on eSORN and proposed changes for local law enforcement in five areas of the state. Additionally, these trainings will include an overarching module for all tools and resources available to users statewide.

ca/ncf