CA- Fresno drops GPS sex offender plan

5-1-2009 California:

City's initiative to monitor beyond parole on uncertain legal legs.

An hour after she took office in January, Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin announced her first major initiative -- a plan to use GPS devices to track the city's convicted sex offenders even after they finish their parole.

Thursday, Police Chief Jerry Dyer said that the plan was being dropped because of doubts about its legality. The city will now wait until state law can be changed. In the meantime, his department will free two detectives for stepped-up monitoring by traditional methods.

"It ended up being a much bigger and more volatile issue than we anticipated," Swearengin said.

Using federal grants, Dyer said the Police Department will hire two retired officers to handle sex-offender registration and related data-entry duties. That will free the two detectives who now do that work to focus on monitoring compliance with the registration rules.

Swearengin said the new approach was "really the backup, but we think it will get us where we need to be."

Dyer said the original plan was first thought to be legal based on information his department had received from state parole agents, who use GPS devices to monitor convicted sex offenders on parole.

"They sent us letters that, in essence, said prior to the removal of the GPS we would be happy to meet with you so that when we take our device off, you can put your device on," he said.

But before moving ahead with the plan, which would require a new city ordinance, Dyer said he briefed state Attorney General Jerry Brown. After a series of conversations between Brown's staff and the city, the two sides concluded that the law on GPS tracking of sex offenders did not clearly allow the city to take over that duty from parole agents.

"It's vague, subject to interpretation," Dyer said. "Although [Brown's office] didn't issue a formal written opinion, they felt that if we went forward we would certainly be a test case" in a lawsuit challenging the practice.

"It wasn't worth the risk," Swearengin said.

Dyer said that the city is now working with the original author of Jessica's Law, which authorizes GPS tracking by parole agents, to make revisions that would allow the city to proceed with its original plan. ..News Source.. by Russell Clemings / The Fresno Bee