The United States Marshals Service and the Local Prosecutor.

AuthorMcPherson, Lori

The United States Marshals Service (USMS) is the nation's oldest federal law enforcement agency, founded in 1789 when George Washington appointed the first 13 U.S. Marshals. Despite its long history, state and local prosecutors may have had little contact with USMS during their careers. This makes sense, as the duties of USMS have historically focused on the federal court process by ensuring judicial security, prisoner transportation and witness security. The U.S. Marshals Service is also the federal government's primary agency for conducting fugitive investigations.

In addition to the responsibilities described above, the U.S. Marshals Service has the authority to work with state and local prosecutors on certain cases involving sex offenders and missing children. This article provides a brief overview of how state and local prosecutors can partner with USMS' Sex Offender Investigations Branch (SOIB) to strengthen efforts to protect their communities.

All services provided by SOIB to state and local prosecutors and/or law enforcement are available free of charge, and include the following:

* Assisting in locating and apprehending non-compliant and fugitive sex offenders

* Tracking the international travel of registered sex offenders

* Assistance from the Behavioral Analysis Unit

* Missing Child Investigations

A brief description of each follows, and practitioners are encouraged to contact IOD.NSOTC@usdoj.gov for additional information. Where available, specific unit email addresses are provided in the following descriptions.

NON-COMPLIANT AND FUGITIVE SEX OFFENDERS

The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 granted USMS the authority to assist jurisdictions in "locating and apprehending sex offenders who violate sex offender registration requirements." (1) To help effect this mission, the National Sex Offender Targeting Center (NSOTC) was created within SOIB. NSOTC serves as an interagency intelligence and operations center and is composed of experienced fugitive investigators, intelligence personnel, analysts, researchers and policy experts, as well as full-time liaisons from the State Department, Department of Defense, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO). In addition, NSOTC works closely with the Sex Offender Tracking Team of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). NSOTC also maintains liaisons at INTERPOL-Washington, Customs and Border Protection's...

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