Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.

Sex offender tracking system unveiled

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor



SPRINGFIELD When a convicted sex offender on parole or probation is required to wear the new Global Positioning System (GPS) device, state officials will be able to monitor his or her movements 24 hours a day.

The next step in electronic supervision of sex offenders was unveiled at the Springfield Hall of Justice on May 25 in a press conference hosted by Paul Lucci, the deputy commissioner of the programs division and the electronic monitoring program of the office of the Commissioner of Probation.

That day, probation officers were being trained in the new system. There will be two offices monitoring sex offenders in the program, and one of them will be in Springfield.

The GPS program will offer more detailed and versatile supervision than the radio devices now used for house arrest, Lucci explained.

The radio devices can alert probation officials if someone on house arrest has left his home, while the GPS program can pinpoint the position of a person. The new system can allow a sex offender to go to work or to counseling sessions. It can also set up areas in which the offender is prohibited from going such as the home of a victim or a school and will signal monitors if the offender has gone into an "exclusion zone."

Since the radio system was started four years ago, there have been 6,000 offenders in that program and there are about 500 people under house arrest today, Lucci said. Since it costs the Commonwealth $2.50 a day to monitor those on the radio system, Lucci said the program has provided "tremendous savings" to the state.

Lucci estimated that by the end of June there would be 90 sex offenders statewide in the new GPS program. A judge or parole board will be making the decision whether or not an offender requires this level of supervision, Lucci explained. The new system will cost the Commonwealth $10 per day per offender.

Sex offenders, who are currently not being electronically monitored, may be placed in the program by a judge if they violate their parole or probation, Lucci said.

The offender in the GPS program is required to wear an ankle bracelet. If altered or removed it will trigger an immediate alarm to probation officials. The bracelet sends a signal to a receiver in the home, which transmits information via telephone lines to monitors.

When the offender leaves his home to an approved destination he must take along a special cell phone which sends his whereabouts to satellites which relay the information to the monitors. If the offender is 25 feet away from the cell phone, the phone will sound an alarm and probation officials will call the offender. If it is necessary, probation officers will be dispatched to apprehend the offender

The offender can not call out on the phone, can not take out the battery, and can not turn it off. Daily recharging is monitored as well.

The system's two offices will be equipped to provide continued monitoring and will have back-up generators in case of power interruption, Lucci said. A stand-by server located in California backs up the computer system.

Lucci showed reporters what the maps look like that the monitors see highly detailed maps on a special web site with blinking dots representing offenders in the program.

Lucci did say that while the new system offers probation officials greater access to the location of sex offenders, that the new system "can't guarantee anyone's safety." It is possible for an offender to remove the bracelet and attempt to flee.