The Adam Walsh Act will, upon full implementation, increase the amount of contact between sex offenders and Law Enforcement.  The Act requires that registered sex offenders report to local jurisdicitons on a more frequeint basis to update their information and show that they are in compliance with the law.  Secondarily, the Act will create a larger number of sex offenders that must be monitored by Law Enforcement on a routine baisis.

The impact of the Adam Walsh Act on the Sparks Police Department will be two-fold.  First, the number of offenders reporting to SPD will increase dramatically.  Each time the offender reports, he/she must be fingerprinted and have contact information intered into several computer systems.  Fingerprinting is currently done in a manual process by SPD clerical staff.  The increase in the number of offenders reporting will necessitate an increase in staff time devoted to the registration process.

The second impact will be to the Regional Sexual Offender Notification Unit (RSONU), which is housed and supervised by the Sparks Police Department.  The RSONU will see a large increase in the number of offenders reporting, and in the number of offenders being supervised.  As the number of offenders reporting increases, there a corresponding number of offenders who will be in non-compliance.  The detectives of the RSONU will have to attempt to locate and put into compliance those out of compliance offenders.  This will require additonal manpower not currently available.  The only way to accomplish this will be to conduct sweep operations using existing personnel working on an overtime basis.

The Justice Assistance Grant will help to solve the problems associated with the implementation of the Adam Walsh Act by providing funding for two separate needs.  The grant will provide $53,058.31 to fund the purchase and installation of two LiveScan units at SPD.  These units allow the rapid collection of the finger and palm prints that the Act requires.  They electronically upload the information to the SPD records management system, and to the required repository at the State of Nevada.

The second part of the funding to be provided by the grant, $47,000, will pay officer overtime so that the RSONU can conduct sweep operations to locate out of compliance offenders on a quarterly basis.

The CIty of Sparks can seek funding elsewhere to meet these needs.

I move to approve and accept the Justice Assistance Grant in the amount of $100,058.31 from the State of Nevada Department of Public Safety, Office of Criminal Justice Assistance.