Letter to Dawn Duran- Update on the United States Virgin Islands' Efforts to Maintain its
Letter to Dawn Duran- Update on the United States Virgin Islands' Efforts to Maintain its
Substantial Compliance Status and to Implement to Remaining SORNA Requirements July 24, 2014
Page 3 o13
Yet another challenge to our MI implementation of the SORNA requirements concerns the
submission of DNA samples to the FBI. The Virgin Islands Department of Justice currently does
not collect DNA samples. Moreover, while the Virgin Islands Police Department does collect
DNA samples for some anestees, these samples are not submitted to the National Crime
Information Center ("NCIC") for input into its databank. In fact, they are used only to compare
the samples against the NCIC databank. Hence, the Department, through the Special Counsel to
the Attorney General Monica Carbon Williams, is making the nerecsnry arrangements to collect
and submit the DNA samples to the FBI.
We have worked hard to ensure that the Territory retains its status as having "substantially
implemented" the requirements of SORNA. Irrespective of the immediate challenges, and there
will doubtless be many more in our future, we are confident that we will continue to enhance the
Sex Offender Registry Program as required by law in order to achieve our goal of fully
implementing the SORNA requirements. We look forward to continuing to work in partnership
with your office to achieve these worthy ends.
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