2009 National Symposium on Sex Offender Management and Accountability

The SMART Office held its 2009 National Symposium on Sex Offender Management and Accountability in Houston, Texas, April 21–23. More than 600 registry officials, law enforcement personnel, tribal representatives, prosecutors, and practitioners attended, receiving information and tools to enable them to more effectively monitor, register, track, and manage sex offenders.

SMART's annual symposium included the National Workshop on the Adam Walsh Act, at which officials from most SORNA registry jurisdictions received an overview of the resources and assistance available from the SMART Office. The symposium included presentations about the Comprehensive Approaches to Sex Offender Management grant program, the Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website, and the Tribe and Territory Sex Offender Registry System. Attendees also learned about issues involving international and interjurisdictional tracking of sex offenders, including the efforts of INTERPOL, ICE's Operation Angel Watch, and the Adam Walsh Act-mandated International Tracking of Sex Offenders Working Group.

The symposium included concurrent sessions spread across three tracks:

• Enforcement featured sessions on handling and registering compliant and noncompliant adult and juvenile sex offenders.
• Indian Country highlighted methods and resources for states and tribes to use in developing cooperative agreements and demonstrated the Model Tribal Code for managing and tracking sex offenders in Indian Country.
• Policy covered the efforts of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to track sex offenders and recent developments in sex offender registry case law, legislation, and research.

We have already begun planning the 2010 symposium and are working to ensure that it will echo the success of this year's event. Check back soon for information on the 2010 symposium.