National Sex Offender Registry: New Hire Data Has Potential for  
Updating Addresses of Convicted Sex Offenders (31-JUL-06,	 
GAO-06-766).							 
                                                                 
In the 1990s, several heinous crimes put the issue of the sexual 
abuse of children onto the nation's policy agenda. Sexual crimes 
against children and adults are often perpetrated by individuals 
known to their victims and these crimes devastate families and	 
communities. To safeguard children and their families, Congress  
enacted a series of laws between 1994 and 2003 that required sex 
offenders to register their addresses with law enforcement	 
agencies. The laws also required that states, in order to be	 
eligible to receive certain federal funds, establish sex offender
registries, and the Department of Justice (DOJ) establish a	 
national sex offender registry. The National Sex Offender	 
Registry (NSOR) is maintained by the Federal Bureau of		 
Investigation (FBI) within DOJ. It is a nationwide database	 
compiled from information in individual state sex offender	 
registries and it currently lists over 400,000 convicted sex	 
offenders. The system requires convicted sex offenders to	 
register with law enforcement agencies upon release from prison  
and to update their address information whenever they move or	 
change addresses. Law enforcement agencies rely on information in
sex offender registries to track the location and movement of	 
convicted sex offenders; however, GAO and others have raised	 
concerns about the accuracy of the information contained in the  
registries because many offenders fail to update their address	 
information as required. To help track the location of sex	 
offenders, law enforcement officials have turned to other sources
of information, such as state departments of motor vehicles and  
commercial databases. Previous GAO work suggests that the	 
National Directory of New Hires (NDNH) has been useful for the	 
purposes of verifying eligibility for federal benefit programs	 
and collecting debt owed to the federal government, and is a	 
timely source of information. The NDNH is a database maintained  
by the Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) within the	 
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The NDNH is a	 
repository of approximately 1.35 billion individual employment,  
unemployment insurance, and wage data records from state	 
directories of new hires, state workforce agencies, and federal  
agencies. It contains information for most of the nation's	 
workforce, including both residential and employer addresses, and
is updated at least quarterly. The NDNH is used primarily to	 
assist state child support agencies in locating parents and	 
enforcing child support orders. Currently, DOJ has access to NDNH
information for cases involving the abduction of a child or for  
enforcing child custody determinations. A memorandum of 	 
understanding between HHS and DOJ governs the data exchange	 
between OCSE and DOJ, and is required for all agencies that have 
access to NDNH data. In order to determine the feasibility of	 
updating information in sex offender registries with information 
contained in the NDNH, we examined: (1) whether there is the	 
potential to help law enforcement agencies locate convicted sex  
offenders by using information contained in the NDNH and	 
approaches that could be taken for doing so, and (2) the	 
potential advantages and limitations associated with these	 
approaches.							 
-------------------------Indexing Terms------------------------- 
REPORTNUM:   GAO-06-766 					        
    ACCNO:   A57719						        
  TITLE:     National Sex Offender Registry: New Hire Data Has	      
Potential for Updating Addresses of Convicted Sex Offenders	 
     DATE:   07/31/2006 
  SUBJECT:   Criminals						 
	     Data collection					 
	     Databases						 
	     Federal/state relations				 
	     Interagency relations				 
	     Records						 
	     Registries 					 
	     Sex crimes 					 
	     DOJ National Sex Offender Registry 		 
	     OCSE National Directory of New Hires		 

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GAO-06-766

     

     * Summary of Findings
          * NDNH Data Could Be Used to Help Locate Sex Offenders, but Ch
          * Approaches for Using NDNH Data Have Advantages and Limitatio
     * Conclusion
     * Matters for Congressional Consideration
     * Agency Comments and Our Evaluation
     * GAO Contact
     * Acknowledgments
     * GAO's Mission
     * Obtaining Copies of GAO Reports and Testimony
          * Order by Mail or Phone
     * To Report Fraud, Waste, and Abuse in Federal Programs
     * Congressional Relations
     * Public Affairs

Report to Congressional Requesters

United States Government Accountability Office

GAO

July 2006

NATIONAL SEX OFFENDER REGISTRY

New Hires Data Has Potential for Updating Addresses of Convicted Sex
Offenders

GAO-06-766

Contents

Letter 1

Summary of Findings 4
Conclusion 5
Matters for Congressional Consideration 6
Agency Comments and Our Evaluation 6
Appendix I Briefing Slides 8
Appendix II Comments from the Department of Health and Human Services 35
Appendix III GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments 38
Related GAO Products 39

Abbreviations

DOJ Department of Justice

FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation

FPLS Federal Parent Locator Service

HHS Department of Health and Human Services

NDNH National Directory of New Hires

NSOR National Sex Offender Registry

OCSE Office of Child Support Enforcement

SSA Social Security Administration

This is a work of the U.S. government and is not subject to copyright
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separately.

United States Government Accountability Office

Washington, DC 20548

July 31, 2006

The Honorable Wally Herger Chairman Subcommittee on Human Resources
Committee on Ways and Means House of Representatives

The Honorable Jim Ramstad Chairman Subcommittee on Oversight Committee on
Ways and Means House of Representatives

The Honorable Mark Foley House of Representatives

In the 1990s, several heinous crimes put the issue of the sexual abuse of
children onto the nation's policy agenda. Sexual crimes against children
and adults are often perpetrated by individuals known to their victims and
these crimes devastate families and communities. To safeguard children and
their families, Congress enacted a series of laws between 1994 and 2003
that required sex offenders to register their addresses with law
enforcement agencies.1 The laws also required that states, in order to be
eligible to receive certain federal funds, establish sex offender
registries, and the Department of Justice (DOJ) establish a national sex
offender registry. The National Sex Offender Registry (NSOR) is maintained
by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) within DOJ. It is a
nationwide database compiled from information in individual state sex
offender registries and it currently lists over 400,000 convicted sex
offenders.2 The system requires convicted sex offenders to register with
law enforcement agencies upon release from prison and to update their
address information whenever they move or change addresses. Law
enforcement agencies rely on information in sex offender registries to
track the location and movement of convicted sex offenders; however, GAO
and others have raised concerns about the accuracy of the information
contained in the registries because many offenders fail to update their
address information as required.3

1 Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender
Registration Act, Pub. L. No. 103-322 (1994); Megan's Law, Pub. L. No.
104-145 (1996); Pam Lychner Sexual Offender Tracking and Identification
Act of 1996, Pub. L. No. 104-236 (1996); Campus Sex Crimes Protection Act,
Pub. L. No. 106-386 (2000); and PROTECT Act, Pub. L. No. 108-21 (2003).

2In addition to individuals convicted of sex offenses, sex offender
registries include individuals convicted of the non-sexual offenses of
non-parental kidnapping of a minor and false imprisonment of a minor.
State sex offender registries can contain information that is not
contained in the national registry.

To help track the location of sex offenders, law enforcement officials
have turned to other sources of information, such as state departments of
motor vehicles and commercial databases. Previous GAO work suggests that
the National Directory of New Hires (NDNH) has been useful for the
purposes of verifying eligibility for federal benefit programs and
collecting debt owed to the federal government, and is a timely source of
information.4 The NDNH is a database maintained by the Office of Child
Support Enforcement (OCSE) within the Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS). The NDNH is a repository of approximately 1.35 billion
individual employment, unemployment insurance, and wage data records from
state directories of new hires, state workforce agencies, and federal
agencies.5 It contains information for most of the nation's workforce,
including both residential and employer addresses, and is updated at least
quarterly.6 The NDNH is used primarily to assist state child support
agencies in locating parents and enforcing child support orders.
Currently, DOJ has access to NDNH information for cases involving the
abduction of a child or for enforcing child custody determinations. A
memorandum of understanding between HHS and DOJ governs the data exchange
between OCSE and DOJ, and is required for all agencies that have access to
NDNH data.

3GAO, Long Term Care Facilities: Information on Residents Who Are
Registered Sex Offenders or Are Paroled for Other Crimes, GAO-06-326
(Washington, D.C.: March 2006). This report addresses concerns about the
comprehensiveness of the NSOR, finding that a significant percentage of
convicted sex offenders are not included in the NSOR because they are
noncompliant with registration requirements or because of difficulties
some states have had submitting their full state registries to the NSOR.
We recommended that the FBI assess the completeness of the NSOR and
evaluate options to make it a more comprehensive database.

4 See GAO, Disability Insurance: SSA Should Strengthen Its Efforts to
Detect and Prevent Overpayments, GAO-04-929 (Washington, D.C.: September
2004); and Benefit and Loan Programs: Improved Data Sharing Could Enhance
Program Integrity, GAO/HEHS-00-119 (Washington, D.C.: September 2000).

5 By design, the NDNH can contain multiple records for some individuals.

6 The three data components of the NDNH provide either an employee or
employer address, or both addresses.

In order to determine the feasibility of updating information in sex
offender registries with information contained in the NDNH, we examined:
(1) whether there is the potential to help law enforcement agencies locate
convicted sex offenders by using information contained in the NDNH and
approaches that could be taken for doing so, and (2) the potential
advantages and limitations associated with these approaches.

To determine whether NDNH data could be used to help law enforcement
agencies locate convicted sex offenders, we reviewed relevant laws,
memoranda of understanding, and agency guidance to identify legal and
other barriers that might prevent law enforcement officials from receiving
NDNH information. This information was also used to identify approaches
for using NDNH information to update sex offender registries.
Additionally, we obtained and analyzed information about the contents of
the NSOR and NDNH to determine whether the systems share unique
identifiers that would permit matching information in the two databases.
Additionally, we assessed the reliability of NDNH and NSOR data through
interviews with key officials from both HHS and the FBI to identify the
various controls used to ensure reliability of the databases, and reviewed
documents pertaining to both systems. We determined the data to be
reliable for the purposes of this report. We also interviewed managers of
four state sex offender registries-Arizona, Florida, Massachusetts, and
Ohio-to obtain information on the accuracy of their state registries.
These states were selected to include geographic dispersion.

To determine the potential advantages and limitations associated with
different approaches to using the NDNH to update the NSOR, we interviewed
key HHS, DOJ, and selected state officials about the potential benefits of
sharing information and how this could be accomplished. We also discussed
potential obstacles to sharing data between the two systems and any
concerns they might have about privacy, data safeguards, and other issues.
Further, we obtained information from HHS officials about the financial
costs associated with receiving and matching NSOR data with NDNH data. The
list of advantages and limitations of various approaches to using NDNH
data in this report is not exhaustive. With further review and analysis,
other advantages and limitations may become clear. We conducted our work
in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards
between February 2006 and July 2006.

On June 23, 2006, we briefed your staff on the results of our work using
the briefing slides we include in appendix I. The purpose of this letter
is to formally transmit the briefing slides and to officially notify
cognizant agency officials about our matters for congressional
consideration.

                              Summary of Findings

While current law does not authorize DOJ to receive NDNH data to use in
locating convicted sex offenders, Congress has granted other federal
agencies the authority to receive NDNH data for use in verifying
individuals' eligibility for federal benefits and other purposes not
related to child support enforcement. Three basic approaches for accessing
the NDNH database could potentially be used to help locate convicted sex
offenders: individual case inquiries, computerized database matching, and
a hybrid approach that would allow states to generate discrete lists of
offenders for computerized database matching. The different approaches
have both common and distinct advantages and limitations. Some of the
benefits and costs associated with these three approaches are uncertain.
For example, computerized database matching of the NDNH and the entire
NSOR offers an opportunity to update sex offender addresses in much
greater volume than individual case inquiries, but the cost of following
up on the resulting volume of mismatches might exceed state resources for
such follow-up and increase privacy risks.

In this report, we are suggesting that Congress consider granting the
authority to HHS to share information contained in the NDNH with the FBI
for the purposes of locating convicted sex offenders who are being
actively sought by law enforcement officials but whose addresses in the
NSOR are incorrect, out-of-date, or missing. Further, we are suggesting
that Congress consider directing HHS and the FBI to conduct a test match
of the information contained in the NDNH and NSOR to determine the actual
costs and benefits that may be derived from matching information in the
two databases, including an assessment of the validity of the matches.

NDNH Data Could Be Used to Help Locate Sex Offenders, but Change in Law Would Be
Required

The NDNH contains address information that has the potential to help law
enforcement agencies locate sex offenders on a case-by-case basis or
through computerized matching; however, a change of law would be required
to authorize its use for this purpose. In order to safeguard the data and
to ensure privacy, section 453 of the Social Security Act restricts NDNH
access to authorized persons and only for authorized purposes. Therefore,
an amendment to this law would be required to share NDNH data with law
enforcement officials. To obtain addresses for individual convicted
offenders, FBI officials could ask OCSE staff to query the NDNH on a
case-by-case basis or the FBI could be granted the authority to access the
NDNH directly. To obtain address information for as many records as
possible, FBI officials could provide the entire NSOR database to OCSE
staff who would match records between the two systems. Alternatively,
states could develop discrete lists of convicted sex offenders for
computerized database matching-a hybrid approach. Under all three
approaches, records for which the NDNH address did not match the NSOR
address would be given to the states for follow-up to determine the
convicted sex offender's actual address. Once the state determined the
convicted offenders' correct address, the state would transmit this
information to the FBI for inclusion in the NSOR.

Approaches for Using NDNH Data Have Advantages and Limitations

Approaches to using NDNH data for locating convicted sex offenders have
both common and distinct advantages and limitations. NDNH data is updated
at least quarterly, thus providing the potential for more frequent updates
of addresses than is currently required under NSOR, regardless of the
approach to using the NDNH data. Additionally, regardless of the approach,
for convicted sex offenders who do not comply with registration
requirements and are employed, the NDNH could provide missing information
on the sex offender's current home and employer addresses. On the other
hand, wider access to the NDNH could jeopardize the security and
confidentiality of the information it contains. The benefits and costs
associated with the various approaches to obtaining address information
from the NDNH present some uncertainties as well. For example, obtaining
information for individual convicted sex offenders on a case-by-case basis
may be less costly than matching all of the records from the NSOR with
corresponding records from the NDNH, but the extent to which it would
contribute to the updating of sex offender registries could be small.
Also, the benefits of matching information from the two databases cannot
be determined without conducting an actual match. This is especially true
because successful matching requires an accurate social security number
(SSN) for each convicted sex offender and the FBI does not verify the SSNs
of sex offenders listed in its registry. It is estimated that
approximately 21 percent of records in the NSOR do not have SSNs.

                                   Conclusion

Keeping law enforcement agencies and the public informed of the location
of convicted sex offenders, and keeping the public-especially
children-from being the victims of convicted sex offenders is of the
utmost importance to lawmakers. National and state sex offender registries
are the primary means used by law enforcement agencies for tracking the
location of sex offenders; however, the accuracy of registry data is
largely dependent on convicted sex offenders self reporting updated
address information. While most convicted sex offenders are registered
when they are released from prison, some fail to update their registration
information on a timely basis, as required by law.

There are several potential approaches for using NDNH data to help law
enforcement agencies locate convicted sex offenders and update offenders'
addresses in the registries; however, current law does not authorize its
use for these purposes. But, there is precedent for using the NDNH for
purposes other than child support enforcement. In addition to a lack of
legal authority to use NDNH data to help in locating convicted sex
offenders, approaches for obtaining updated address information from the
NDNH involve both common and distinct advantages and limitations. Without
a discussion among stakeholders and program managers, and without
conducting an actual test match, the benefits, costs, and challenges of
employing each of the approaches to matching data within the two databases
will remain uncertain.

                    Matters for Congressional Consideration

To help law enforcement officials track the location of convicted sex
offenders using updated address information, Congress should consider:

           o  granting HHS the authority to share with the FBI address
           information from the NDNH for convicted sex offenders who are
           being actively sought by law enforcement officials, and
           o  directing the FBI to work with HHS to conduct a test match of
           information from the NSOR and NDNH to determine the actual
           benefits and costs that may be derived from matching information
           in the two databases, including an assessment of the validity of
           the matches.

                       Agency Comments and Our Evaluation

We provided a draft of this report to HHS and DOJ for review and comment.
HHS generally agreed with the contents of the report, but expressed
concerns about the privacy and security risks associated with authorizing
wider access to NDNH data. HHS noted that use of NDNH data for the purpose
of updating address information in the NSOR is different in nature from
other authorized uses and that the potential ramifications of wrongful use
of NDNH data should be considered carefully. We believe HHS' concerns are
valid and have recognized these concerns in the report. Further, we
believe that, if authorized, any discussions regarding the use of NDNH
data should include a discussion of privacy and security considerations
before conducting a test match of information in the two databases. Both
HHS and DOJ provided technical comments, which we have incorporated where
appropriate. HHS' written comments are reproduced in appendix II.

As agreed with your staff, unless you publicly announce its contents
earlier, we plan no further distribution of this report until 30 days
after its issue date. At that time, we will send copies of this report to
the Secretaries of HHS and DOJ, relevant congressional committees and
other interested parties. We will make copies available to others upon
request. In addition, this report will be available at no charge on GAO's
Web site at www.gao.gov . If you or your staff have any questions about
this report, please contact me at (202) 512-8403 or [email protected] .
Contact points for our Offices of Congressional Relations and Public
Affairs may be found on the last page of this report.

Cornelia M. Ashby Director, Education, Workforce, and Income Security
Issues

Appendix I: Briefing Slides Appendix I: Briefing Slides

Appendix II: Comments from the Department of Health and Human Services

Appendix III: GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments

GAO Contact

Cornelia M. Ashby (202) 512-7215 or [email protected]

Acknowledgments

David Lehrer (Assistant Director), Ramona L. Burton (Analyst-in-Charge),
Ellen Soltow (Senior Analyst), Sue Bernstein, Terry Richardson, and Daniel
Schwimer also made significant contributions to this report.

Related GAO Products

Immigration Benefits: Circumstances Under Which a Petitioner's Sex
Offenses May Be Disclosed to a Beneficiary. GAO-06-735 . Washington, D.C.:
June 2006.

Long-Term Care Facilities: Information on Residents Who Are Registered Sex
Offenders or Are Paroled for Other Crimes. GAO-06-326 . Washington, D.C.:
March 2006.

Disability Insurance: SSA Should Strengthen Its Efforts to Detect and
Prevent Overpayments. GAO-04-929 . Washington, D.C.: September 2004.

Unemployment Insurance: Increased Focus on Program Integrity Could Reduce
Billions in Overpayments. GAO-02-697 . Washington, D.C.: July 2002.

Benefit and Loan Programs: Improved Data Sharing Could Enhance Program
Integrity. GAO-00-119 . Washington, D.C.: September 2000.

(130548)

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