A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to appropriate funds to the department of justice to help support the north carolina sex offender watch initiative and to fund new positions for SBI field computer agents and computer forensic analysts to increase undercover law enforcement efforts to catch child predators and speed up the analysis of computer forensic evidence used to arrest and prosecute the sexual predators.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Justice the sum of three hundred four thousand three hundred forty‑two dollars ($304,342) for the 2007‑2008 fiscal year to provide funding for the North Carolina Sex Offender Watch Initiative.  The funds appropriated by this section shall be used to support two information technology staff positions for the North Carolina Sex Offender Watch Initiative and to cover mapping software subscription costs of the Initiative.
During the 2006 Regular Session, the General Assembly provided funds to support and develop the North Carolina Sex Offender Watch Initiative.  The North Carolina Sex Offender Watch Initiative uses new technology to provide more current and useful information by doing all of the following:
(1)	Allowing residents of a community to be notified by e‑mail immediately when a sex offender moves into their neighborhood, 
(2)	Allowing victims or their family members to sign up to receive e–mail alerts about the movements of specific offenders, and
(3)	Using mapping to show exactly where an offender lives in relation to a neighborhood, school, bus stop, day care center, park, business, or any other location of concern.
SECTION 2.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Justice the sum of five hundred seventeen thousand nine hundred fifty‑eight dollars ($517,958) for the 2007‑2008 fiscal year to provide full funding for four new State Bureau of Investigation field computer crime agents and two new computer forensics analysts to increase undercover law enforcement efforts to catch child predators and speed up the analysis of computer forensic evidence used to arrest and prosecute these sexual predators.
SECTION 3.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2007.