10-25-2007 Tennessee:
A high-tech tracking device helps cops keep a closer eye on convicted sex offenders who live in your neighborhoods.
Your Tri-Cities News Source told you earlier this year about a pilot program in eleven Tennessee counties using global positioning technology to track offenders. Now, that program is going statewide.
News Channel 11's Melinda Perkins was there as officers in our region learned to use the new system.
Tennessee Probation and Parole officers used to rely on spot checks to monitor sex offenders. Now, with the click of a mouse, officers all over the state can check up on them anytime. Tuesday, officers in our region learned how to use the technology.
"We can pull it up on a map and see that their vehicle is actually moving through. We can tell what speed that vehicle is going through," Bob Henshaw with the Tennessee Board of Probation and Parolesaid.
Every offender on the program wears a G.P.S. bracelet. The bracelet communicates with a monitoring center in Nashville. That's how offenders are tracked. Still, officers say they can't track everything.
"It doesn't prevent crime, it just helps us supervise those that we are charged with supervising better it's a tracking device. It's not a crime prevention device," Henshaw said.
The tab for tracking isn't cheap. The cost: $8 dollars a day per offender. That's about $240 per offender each month. For SullivanCounty alone that comes to $86,400 a year to track 30 sex offenders on the G.P.S. system. The offender pays a portion of that money, $50 dollars a month. The rest comes from the state. In all, it's a $1.9 million price tag, but officers say your safety is worth the cost.
"It's just another tool that the officers can use in the field to help with supervision and that protects the community," Susan Shettlesworth with the Tennessee Board of Probation and Parole said.
The new G.P.S. monitoring program is already expanding. Probation officers will use G.P.S. to track sex offenders and violent offenders in Tennessee. Officers use criteria like criminal history and victim information to determine which violent offenders to track. The new system goes into effect immediately. ..more.. by TriCities.com
No comments:
Post a Comment