FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FOR INFORMATION CONTACT: August 01, 2008 USMS Headquarters Public Affairs (202) 307-9065   ***Prepared for Delivery*** Remarks by U.S Marshals Director John F. Clark at the SMART National Symposium on Sex Offender Management and Accountability   BALTIMORE – Thank you. It is nice to be back, addressing a group of people who share a common cause: the accountability of sex offenders. I thought I would begin by sharing a few good news / bad news items from a recent Bureau of Justice Statistics bulletin: Good news: 3,661 child exploitations cases were referred to U.S. Attorneys in 2006. Bad news: Child sex offenses are among the fastest growing crimes of the federal criminal caseload from 1994 – 2006. Good news: Convicted sex offenders sentenced to prison increased from 81 percent in 1996 to 96 percent in 2006. Bad news: Most of those convictions involved child pornography. Good news: Nearly 1,100 sex offenders were arrested during the recent U.S. Marshals led fugitive sweep known as Operation FALCON. Bad news: There are an estimated 100,000 unregistered sex offenders whose whereabouts are unknown. We don’t have to search far to find case after case, many ending tragically, where someone has been harmed or even killed by an unregistered sex offender. In fact, it is commonplace. That’s why I am pleased to see national recognition of this important issue, and the fact that we can have a major national conference to discuss better ways to manage the sex offender problem is a great milestone. This conference has brought together experts in law enforcement, prosecutor’s offices, tribal leaders and other interested parties to make the important step of collaboration and communication. I want to spend a few moments to talk about the Adam Walsh Act and let you know where we stand on implementing this important piece of legislation. We just passed the two-year anniversary of the act being signed into law. Since that date, U.S. Marshals have presented nearly 2,000 cases to federal prosecutors for violations of the act. By and large, we have made these cases with no additional funding or personnel, just a top-to-bottom commitment to find these offenders and bring them to justice. If I had to sum up the U.S. Marshals efforts to enforce this law with no resources, I would say, “Make it happen.” U.S. Marshals recently received some start-up funding that will allow us to strengthen our apprehension efforts and begin work to open a Sex Offender Targeting Center, which will also be staffed with analysts from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The targeting center will include better intelligence and analytical resources and methods to track offenders, as well as a Behavior Analysis Branch - all of which will focus on helping investigators find offenders. We are anxious to dig into the casework that, by conservative estimates, is about 100,000 cases deep. We will be ready to do our part, but we cannot be successful on our own. We need your help. I urge state and local jurisdictions to track and be aware of the sex offenders in their jurisdictions. The Department of Justice’s national concept of safer neighborhoods and safer children truly begins at home. In your city and on your street. Just last June, the U.S. Marshals conducted our fifth, and most successful, Operation FALCON. FALCON, which stands for Federal and Local Cops Organized Nationally, brought together over 4,200 federal, state and local police and sheriff’s deputies from nearly 1,600 different law enforcement agencies hit the streets to find and arrest violent offenders. In the end, 19,380 of America’s most wanted were behind bars. They collectively had more than 94,000 prior arrests. As mentioned previously, many of those arrested were for sex offenses. We are proud of what Operation FALCON has become – literally the most successful fugitive apprehension operation in this Nation’s history. I look forward to replicating – or exceeding – our efforts in the next operation. We continue to use our six Regional Fugitive Task Forces and 85 District Task Forces to aggressively pursue sex offenders. So far this year, Deputy Marshals and our state and local law enforcement partners have apprehended 6,100 sex offenders nationwide. They are truly making a difference. I’ve given you the bad news - an estimated 100,000 unregistered sex offenders whose whereabouts are unknown. How do we approach the problem? How do we take on this monumental task? It requires management and accountability through a two-step process. First, enforcement: We must use every investigative tool in our inventory to track, find and apprehend those who knowingly and willfully try to avoid registration. Secondly, compliance: We must get sex offenders to willingly and voluntarily register so that their status and whereabouts can be tracked. Everyone wants compliance, but it is often offender driven. In both circumstances, the future Sex Offender Targeting Center will help facilitate this process. Our toolbox is getting bigger. Funding, resources, intelligence gathering, communication and collaboration – at unprecedented levels – should give us all a reason for optimism. I know I don’t have to ask anyone in this room why all of this is important, but sometimes the reasoning is made crystal clear – as with something that happened during our recent Operation FALCON. Out of these thousands of arrests we made, allow me to share one story. While serving a statutory rape warrant during Operation FALCON, one of our Deputy Marshals came upon the suspect’s residence and asked to speak with the person in question. The suspect wasn’t home, but an acquaintance of his who came to the door seemed very familiar with his criminal past and shared that information, to include the name of an alleged rape victim of his – a 12-year-old girl. This took our Deputy aback, since the victim had the very same name as a local girl that she had taken under her wing as part of the area’s Big Brothers/Big Sisters project. In fact, a picture of the two had a prominent place on the Deputy’s desk at work. A little further questioning revealed that this was in fact the same girl. For this Deputy it was now very personal, and this criminal was destined to be behind bars in short order. I can guarantee you this Deputy - and her fellow officers - was determined to make that happen. The fugitive sex offender was arrested shortly thereafter. This is just one example of the need to have strong national laws, aggressive law enforcement efforts and a determined prosecutor working to protect the most innocent among us. I thank you for your time and ask just one thing of each of you. Go back to your jobs motivated to make a difference. There is no more noble cause than to protect our society from sex offenders. Take a strong look at your sex offender registry process and see how it can be improved. Do something about it - please. Thank you.