Colorado's AWA/SORNA Efforts

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.

One of the State of Colorado's greatest challenges to becoming fully compliant with SORNA requirements has been the lack of a statewide infrastructure for the capture and transmission of biometric sex offender data. The Colorado Department of Public Safety is looking to replace its Automated Fingerprint Identification System with an Automated Biometric Identification System. By replacing their current system, it would allow the State to continue to improve systems throughout the State, municipalities, and counties by providing important data to the State repository and the FBI. The data, including sex offenders' palm prints and photographs not currently collected on a statewide basis, will be available for identification, tracking, registration and related purposes. This will enable the State to collect and analyze photographs and palm prints as well as fingerprints. The State will use grant funds to purchase and install 14 new Livescan systems, allowing local agencies to collect and share that data. ca/ncf