NSA Partners with Fulton County Sheriff's Office for New Pilot Program

Today, the National Sheriffs’ Association (NSA) announced its partnership with the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office (FCSO) in Atlanta, Georgia to implement their three-year Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI) technology grant funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) Grant No. 2019-ZB-BX-0003. NSA’s $1,245,604 grant will be used to implement a first-of-its-kind initiative to reduce violent crime and recidivism in Fulton County, the greater Atlanta area, and neighboring counties in Georgia.  The groundbreaking project known as the NSA RAPIDS (Reduce violent crime and recidivism And Produce Improvement through Data Sharing) Pilot Project has brought together several experts to support the implementation at FCSO, including BI2 Technologies, Secured Communications, Watch Systems, and the IJIS Institute. Together, for the first time, the project combines three technologies — a mobile application and Secured Communications platform, all local and national databases of the Inmate Recognition and Identification System (I.R.I.S.™), and a digital platform, (Offender Watch® FOCUS technology) focused on registering, monitoring and tracking sex offenders.

“Law enforcement remains challenged by information shortfalls. The NSA and its members are uniquely positioned to become a data-resource to law enforcement and the communities.  We thank the Department of Justice, Sheriff Labat, and the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office for seeing the need and helping to bridge the data divide.  This initiative will save lives, prevent crime and perhaps most importantly bring further transparency to our communities,” said NSA Executive Director/CEO Jonathan Thompson.