Free Registry Technology for Tribes and Territories

Under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), non-PL 280 tribes were able to elect to function as a sex offender registration jurisdiction or to delegate this responsibility to the state. Out of 212 tribes eligible to make this decision, 197 ultimately elected to take on the sex offender registration responsibilities. Currently, the 197 tribes and three U.S. territories are without an online registry. These jurisdictions must establish a public sex offender registry to comply with SORNA. Many tribes have expressed concern about the technological requirements to register and track sex offenders.

To assist in this endeavor, the SMART Office, in partnership with the Institute for Intergovernmental Research, is developing the Tribal and Territory Sex Offender Registry System (TTSORS). This free tool is being created to provide the 197 Indian tribes and three territories with a fully functioning online sex offender registry. Each tribe or territory that elects to use the registry system will have its own public web site, private administrative web site, and database that will make up its sex offender registry system.

• The public web site will allow the general public to search for sex offenders within the registry, register a physical address so they are notified when sex offenders relocate near them, and search for email addresses that belong to registered sex offenders.
• The private administrative web site will be a secure site used by approved tribal members or territory officials to add, edit, and delete registered sex offender information and to manage the design of the public web site.
• The database will store the information about registered sex offenders within the territory or on the tribal reservation.

In addition, the tribes and territories that elect to use TTSORS will automatically be connected to and participate with the Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website, which is another requirement of SORNA.

To make TTSORS as efficient as possible, the jurisdictional registries will be hosted in a central location, relieving participating tribes and territories of the responsibility for purchasing or managing any new hardware. Furthermore, tribes or territories will need only a single computer with Internet access to use the system and to manage their own sex offender registry. Contact the SMART Office for further information.