2024 Winter Meeting Resources
SEARCH’s 2024 Winter Membership Group Meeting drew more than 150 attendees from 45 states who participated either onsite at the DoubleTree by Hilton New Orleans hotel in downtown New Orleans, Louisiana, or who joined virtually via the Zoom platform.
The Winter Meeting, held January 23–25, featured speakers from state and federal government, national organizations, and private industry. It kicked off on Tuesday, January 23, with a welcome address from the Honorable John L. Weimer, Chief Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court.
As SEARCH’s governing body, the Membership Group meets twice yearly to discuss, analyze and strategize on key policy, operational and technical issues impacting justice information sharing. Federal and state government partners, as well as industry leaders, also attend to share critical information about new programs, services and emerging trends. In turn, they learn about Members’ operational perspectives and the states’ justice information sharing challenges and needs.
The 2024 Winter Meeting Agenda featured the following:
- A briefing from the SEARCH Board of Directors regarding organizational priorities for SEARCH.
- A Government Affairs briefing on legislative activities of the 118thCongress, including an outlook on major legislation and appropriations. The session included the participation of two deputy directors of the first-ever White House Office on Gun Violence Prevention, created in September 2023, who provided details on the office’s key responsibilities.
- A Roundtable session during which SEARCH Members shared information and experiences on priority issues and programs in their states.
- A two-part workshop focusing on the criminal history record, including the current status of criminal history records in state repositories nationally and efforts to develop universal measures of data quality.
- A briefing from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) on the strategic vision for the Bureau and investments in critical national programs, such as NIBRS, NCHIP and NARIP.
- A session in which representatives of national organizations, courts, and state administrative agencies (SAAs) addressed strategies for coordinating in preparing NCHIP, NCHIP-Supplemental, and NARIP funding applications and building strategic partnerships.
- An assessment of the impact and implementation of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), which aims to enhance public safety by expanding firearms background checks.
- Spotlights on two SEARCH programs: Software and Data Engineering, and Cybercrime and Digital Forensics, with an added focus on information systems security.
- An update on the status of Clean Slate implementation efforts in states and nationally.
- An update on the successful implementation of FirstNet, an interoperable public safety broadband network.
- A look at how building subscription/notification services into the Interstate Compact Offenders under Transfer System (ICOTS) has helped the Interstate Commission for Adult Offender Supervision and pilot states benefit from innovative capabilities and efficiencies.
- A session that examined the numerous possibilities that NIBRS data presents for counting crime and its characteristics.
- A roundtable discussion between SEARCH Members, Staff and industry solution providers regarding how to facilitate open dialogue on emerging trends in technology, change drivers, and operational requirements.
SEARCH thanks our Sponsors of the 2024 Winter Membership Group Meeting
Photos from the 2024 Winter Meeting
The SEARCH Membership Group, the governing body of SEARCH, is comprised of one gubernatorial appointee from each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the territories, as well as eight at-large appointees selected by SEARCH’s Chair. This national body of state-level professionals is widely representative of the various disciplines within the justice system, and many are responsible for operational decisions and policymaking concerning the management of criminal justice.
