On October 1st 2016, the California Department of Justice-Sex Offender Registry opened the application process to all California law enforcement agencies for the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) Reallocation Grant Pilot Program. The purpose of this grant was to assist and facilitate those police agencies, with more than 50 sex registrants residing in their jurisdiction, in their registration process and tracking of the sex registrants. The award amount was up to $40,000 per agency, depending on the agency size and the number of sex registrants that the applying agency monitored.

In November 2016, Detective Dave Lopez recognized the need for resources that would increase the efficiency of the GGPD Sex Offender Unit, and applied for the grant. The need was to upgrade and streamline the equipment/registration process, as well as obtaining new equipment for the monitoring of registrants during quarterly sweeps.

Detective Lopez, with assistance from one civilian employee, monitors 206 Garden Grove sex offender registrants. Twice a week, for four hours each day, offenders come to the police station to register and remain in compliance with the law. The registration process involves multiple steps, including redundant data input, photographs and fingerprints, and can take up to three hours to complete for each registrant as the equipment is scattered throughout the department and shared with other units.

The Department’s Sex Offender Unit also conducts four yearly sex offender registrant sweeps to monitor the registrants and to confirm that they are compliant with their registrant guidelines. These sweeps often are manned by more than 50 police personnel from GGPD, the OC Probation Department and parole agents from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. In order to streamline the sex registration process, upgrade the field effectiveness of the sweeps, and scan/download the several hundreds of prior years’ registration forms still in storage, Detective Lopez requested the grant money to purchase equipment/technology for the unit.

Using SORNA money to purchase equipment/technology creates no burden on the City’s General Fund.

It is recommended that the City Council:

• Approve the Agreement with the California Department of Justice for the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) 2016 Grant Pilot Program, and allocation of those grant funds to the City’s Police Department; and

• Authorize the City Manager to execute the agreement with the California Department of Justice to purchase equipment/technology for the Police Department.

By:  Courtney Allison, Fiscal Analyst