Featured Issue: 4-10-05
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GPS Monitoring Devices: Effective Solution or Another Illusion?
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Following the death of Jessica Lunsford ,9, Florida's Sen. Nancy Argenziano wants to pass a bill to require sex offenders on parole or probation or other supervision to wear GPS devices to track their movements.
Important facts about the proposed GPS bill: First is the bill IS NOT retroactive, which means -if passed- current offenders would not have to wear the device. Offenders convicted after the effective date would begin using the GPS devices.
.U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite said that once Florida tightens its laws, she will work toward making sure the rest of the nation has equally tough statutes. But she added that her efforts, and Argenziano's, would probably be protested by the American Civil Liberties Union.
"They don't have your children's best interests at heart," said Brown-Waite, R-Crystal River. "They just want to protect the criminals."
The executive director of ACLU Florida, Howard Simon, said the ACLU has not taken a position on the bill. She's not doing any public service to protect children by misdirecting anger at the ACLU," Simon said.
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It would appear that the ACLU should oppose such a bill as it is not an effective method to prevent a crime such as Jessica Lunsford. Folks need to know more about GPS devices.
For an excellent explanation of what GPS is, how GPS works and how accurate it is: CLICK
There are two types of GPS devices, Passive and Active, the difference being minute-by-minute monitoring (Active) or once-a-day downloading of where the offender has been during the day (Passive). With either of the models from ProTech the offender must wear a ankle bracelet and carry a box (a collector of movements [passive] or a transmitter of minute by minute movement [active]). With the passive system, at the end of the day the offender must plug it in a telephone to transmit the collected data to the central office.
While the Active type appears to be better, one cannot forget that, Florida is noted for its inclement weather and severe storms which does affect those devices, last year they had mass evacuations which would also be a problem.
.SEE: Users in Ga., Minn. say GPS a helpful tool but not foolproof: Officials warn that much manpower is required to track sex offenders by satellite. Still, he and a Minnesota official have advice for Illinois: Don't be fooled into thinking GPS is a guaranteed way to prevent crime and don't underestimate how much labor it takes to manage a GPS system. Oleson said Georgia parole officers quickly discovered that there's a steep learning curve to getting accustomed to the equipment and sifting through the reams of data generated every day. Georgia is five months into a 12-month GPS pilot project..
"A lot of the general public thinks that it's all computer-oriented and that one person can keep track of 100 or 200 people. But it's not that way at all," he said. "You're going to get these violation notifications, and you're going to have to go in and look at each offender for that violation, see where he is, and see what was going on and determine whether that was a real violation."
In Minnesota, the Department of Corrections has been using GPS to track the most dangerous sex offenders for about a year. Department spokeswoman Liz Bogut said it's a useful supervision tool -- with limitations. The device will alert authorities that it's been tampered with, but they won't know where the offender is. "If the offender ditches the transmitting device at any time, say he drops it on his bed and then walks out the door, it's no longer effective," she said.
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The Florida DOC estimated that, 1,700 would use the devices at a cost of 13.3 million dollars. Governor Jeb Bush also had this to say: "No one wants to put a price tag on a child's life, but Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said the plan must be realistic. Estimates for more prison beds and elaborate GPS systems range into the hundreds of millions of dollars. "Any bill that's passed that has a fiscal impact needs to have the budget in there. I’ll tell you I’m concerned about that," Bush said."
I guess the final question is, if the killer of Jessica Lunsford was wearing such a device, could he still have committed such a crime? The unfortunate answer is, YES. These devices cannot be programmed to go off if a sex offender enters the bedroom of every single child in Florida. Effective Solution or Another Illusion?
eAdvocate
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