Multnomah County District Attorney's Office Sex Offender Registration Detail (SORD)

The Recovery Act Edward Byrne Memorial Competitive Grant Program (Byrne Competitive Program) will help communities improve the capacity of state and local justice systems and provide for national support efforts including training and technical assistance programs strategically targeted to address local needs. This competitive grant announcement focuses on initiatives in eight areas: 1) preventing and reducing violent crime through community-based data-driven approaches; 2) providing funding for neighborhood-based probation and parole officers; 3) reducing mortgage fraud and crime related to vacant properties; 4) hiring of civilian support personnel in law enforcement (training staff, analysts, dispatchers, etc.); 5) enhancing forensic and crime scene investigations; 6) improving resources and services for victims of crime; 7) supporting problem-solving courts; and 8) national training and technical assistance partnerships.

Under category 1, the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office (MCDA) will use the grant award to continue its comprehensive community-based, data-driven approach to prevent and reduce violent crime. MCDA will assign a full-time prosecutor to work with the Portland Police Bureau's Sex Offender Registration Detail (PPB SORD). MCDA and PPB SORD will investigate and prosecute all failures to register as a sex offender and educate community members on how to access information about sex offenders in their neighborhoods. MCDA will: work with the PPB SORD to reduce the sex offender registration noncompliance rate by 10 percent (from 19 to 9 percent); increase prosecution of failure to register as a sex offender cases by 50 percent; and present (together with PPB SORD) at six community forums and educate 200 citizens in person on how to use sex offender registration resources. MCDA will be co-located with PPB SORD and will be available 24 hours a day, 7 days per week to answer questions, give legal advice, and review warrants. MCDA and PPB will coordinate with the Oregon State Police Sex Offender Registration Unit, which tracks the registration information of all registered sex offenders residing in Oregon. MCDA and PPB will collaborate with the Department of Community Justice, which monitors the probations of all offenders convicted of felony failure to register as a sex offender.

CA/NCF