The Office of the Inspector General provided a draft of this report to the United States Marshals Service (USMS) for its comments. The USMS’s response is included in Appendix X of this report. The OIG’s analysis of the USMS’s response and the actions necessary to close the recommendations are discussed below.
Recommendation 3. The USMS should obtain NSOR and the NCIC Wanted Persons File data downloads from the FBI and use that information to manage and conduct fugitive sex offender investigations.
Status. Resolved – open.
Summary of the USMS Response. The USMS agreed that records from NSOR and the Wanted Persons File can be used to identify for investigation suspected fugitive sex offenders as well as sex offenders who may be out of compliance with sex offender registration requirements. Therefore, the USMS concurred with this recommendation and provided a letter dated November 3, 2008, which it had sent to the FBI requesting records from NSOR and the NCIC Wanted Persons File. The USMS stated that details of the information-sharing process have yet to be worked out and that a memorandum of understanding will be required between the USMS and FBI specifying the terms and conditions for sharing these records. The USMS also stated that sharing the records will require system modifications and the acquisition of analytical software and related resources. The USMS could not provide a completion date for establishing a method to receive and use the data from the FBI in support of sex offender investigations, but estimated that it could occur in mid-2009 or before.
OIG Analysis. We believe that the actions planned and taken by the USMS are responsive to our recommendation. For the OIG to close this recommendation, by June 5, 2009, the USMS must provide the OIG with: (1) a copy of the memorandum of understanding between the USMS and FBI, (2) a description of the method by which the USMS will receive data from the FBI, (3) confirmation of the first transfer of NSOR and NCIC Wanted Person File data from the FBI, and (4) a description of how the USMS will use the data to manage and conduct fugitive sex offender investigations.