National Center Missing and Exploited Children

STATEMENT FROM NCMEC PRESIDENT AND CEO ERNIE ALLEN IN RESPONSE TO THE U.S. MARSHALS’ OPERATION FALCON III

““The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) congratulates the U.S. Marshals (USMS) for its overwhelming success with Operation FALCON III. Less than 90 days after the new Adam Walsh Act launched an initiative to apprehend sex offenders who fail to register in their communities, the Marshals have proven their extraordinary ability to quickly capture thousands of sexual predators.

With the passing of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, NCMEC joined in a partnership with the USMS to serve as the central information and analysis hub, assisting in their efforts to apprehend non-compliant registered sex offenders. NCMEC’s new Sex Offender Tracking Team is made up of analysts dedicated to supporting the USMS, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), state sex offender registries and other law enforcement agencies nationwide to help identify and locate these offenders. Analysts will act as liaisons between state registries in an effort to increase communication and better track sex offenders moving between states, respond to requests to conduct searches for non-compliant registered sex offenders, as well as develop leads to assist USMS field personnel looking for fugitive sex offenders.

In addition, NCMEC’s team will compare its data of child abductions cases, attempted abductions, and online predator information for potential linkages with non-compliant sex offenders being sought by law enforcement. This information will be utilized to broaden the existing knowledge base regarding sex offenders and child predators in order to create more effective prevention and response strategies.

NCMEC is proud to be working with the U.S Marshals in this unprecedented effort to protect our nation’s children against sexual predators.”