Awards SEARCH Annual Awards Spotlight Contributions to Justice and Public Safety For more than two decades, SEARCH has honored the achievements of justice leaders and professionals with two prestigious annual awards that reflect our involvement in major national initiatives and collaborative partnerships with national organizations, legislative leaders, and justice and public safety agencies at all levels.

Each award is selected by the SEARCH Board of Directors at their Winter Meeting early in the year and is handed out at ceremonies coinciding with SEARCH's Annual Meeting each July. Individuals are nominated by SEARCH Members and by past award recipients.

SEARCH is pleased to announce the 2008 recipients of these prestigious awards, who were selected by the Board of Directors, and who received their awards at a ceremony July 23, 2008, in Cleveland, Ohio:

• Mr. Domingo Herraiz, Director, Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), U.S.DOJ, who received the 2008 O.J. Hawkins Award.
• Ms. Diane Sherman, Director, Criminal Justice Information Center, Michigan State Police, who received the 2008 Gary R. Cooper Award.

See photo of Mr. Herraiz and Ms. Sherman receiving their awards.

Mr. Domingo Herraiz, Director, Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), U.S.DOJ, received the 2008 O.J. Hawkins Award for Outstanding Contributions in Criminal Justice Information Systems, Policy and Statistics in the United States. He was recognized for his outstanding contributions to the field of justice and public safety information sharing.

Mr. Herraiz has served as the Director of BJA since his appointment by President Bush and confirmation by the Senate on March 8, 2004. He came to BJA from the State of Ohio, where he served on the Governor's Cabinet as the Director of the Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services (OCJS). Prior to OCJS, Mr. Herraiz was Executive Director of the Ohio Crime Prevention Association, the largest state crime prevention association in the country, and also served as the Executive Committee Chair of the Crime Prevention Coalition of America.

During his tenure at BJA, Director Herraiz has made outstanding contributions to the field of justice and public safety information sharing. Under his leadership, the Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative (Global)-a Federal Advisory Committee to the Attorney General-continues to develop significant resources for practitioners, particularly with regard to developing critical standards for information sharing, such as the Global Justice XML Data Model (GJXDM).

Another of Director Herraiz's legacies is the National Sex Offender Public Registry (NSOPR). BJA made a major impact on nationwide information sharing with the development of this online resource that links state sex offender registries across the entire United States so that the public can have instant, comprehensive and timely access to sex offender data.

This award formally acknowledges an individual's service, dedication and contributions that have improved the justice community's ability to develop and use criminal justice information, and is intended to honor an individual whose efforts have had a national impact over a significant period of time. Mr. Herraiz was nominated by former SEARCH Executive Director Gary R. Cooper, himself a previous recipient of the O.J. Hawkins Award, who wrote that "Director Herraiz continues to aggressively pursue avenues to develop, implement and advocate for tools and resources for the justice and public safety community. His contributions to date, and I'm sure beyond, will long serve the nation's justice and public safety community."

Past recipients of O.J. Hawkins Award

Ms. Diane Sherman, Director, Criminal Justice Information Center, Michigan State Police, received the 2008 Gary R. Cooper Meritorious Service Award, presented each year to the SEARCH Member who has provided outstanding work on behalf of SEARCH and criminal justice information services.

Ms. Sherman, a SEARCH Member since 2002, has been an active, involved, and committed leader. She has served as a member of the SEARCH Board of Directors; Law and Policy and Research and Statistics Program Advisory Committees; and the Washington, D.C., Presence Ad Hoc Committee. Most recently, Ms. Sherman has been involved in the Planning Committee for the Carver Governance Methodology Training Retreat for the SEARCH Board of Directors; and the Bylaws Committee to bring the SEARCH Bylaws into conformance with the 2007, newly adopted SEARCH Policies, under the Carver Policy Governance Model.

Ms. Sherman has been the Director of the Criminal Justice Information Center of the Department of State Police since 2003. Over the years she has been responsible for the programs associated with the automated fingerprint identification system (AFIS), criminal history records, traffic crashes, pistol registrations, concealed weapons permits, uniform crime reporting, the Law Enforcement Information Network (LEIN), and the Sex Offender Registry.

The Criminal Justice Information Center provides access to all users of the Michigan Criminal Justice Information Network (MiCJIN) portal and performs such diverse functions as crime analysis and criminal background searches. The center also houses all Michigan State Police incident reports, a centralized mug shot system, and handles all Freedom of Information requests for the department. Ms. Sherman is a member of the Criminal Justice Information Systems Policy Council and the Traffic Records Coordinating Committee. Michigan was one of the first states to offer background checks over the Internet, to procure the advanced AFIS 21 system and to implement electronic fingerprint transactions between the FBI. She was instrumental is establishing the MiCJIN portal as a method to satisfy information sharing needs and meet federal security requirements.

Currently, Ms. Sherman is coordinating the implementation of the Adam Walsh Act, the development of a new records management system, and the creation of a sound crime and information analysis and research structure.

Ms. Sherman was nominated for this award by Hawaii Member Liane Moriyama and Florida Member Donna M. Uzzell, both of whom are previous Cooper Award winners. In their nomination letter, they wrote that "in her five-plus years as a SEARCH Member, Ms. Sherman has demonstrated important leadership qualities, has given freely of her time and expertise, and has shown a strong commitment to SEARCH and the national criminal justice information management community."

Past recipients of Gary R. Cooper Meritorious Service Award