9-7-2009 California:
EAST PALO ALTO, Calif. (KCBS) -- The Phillip Garrido case has brought many issues into question regarding sexual offenders.
And now, several victims' advocacy groups and law enforcement agencies are questioning the practice of using GPS to monitor sex offenders like Garrido.
As a registered offender, Garrido was required to wear an electronic ankle bracelet to track his movements.
But East Palo Alto Police Chief Ron Davis said that proved to have no value in deterring him from his alleged crime.
GPS has one single purpose, tracking, and is not meant to be a detterent. In Garrido's case GPS was not installed until 2006, years after he had kidnapped Jaycee. Also, wearing a GPS unit -at home- where he committed further crimes against Jaycee, is useless it is programmed to allow him to walk around his own property area.
"It may show that he's at a house, but it doesn't tell us what's going on inside the house. It doesn't tell us what he's engaged in," Davis said. "It gives us one portion of security, but when you're talking about a predator, then you're talking about multiple aspects of his behavior."
Robert Coombs, a spokesman for the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault said he has many of the same concerns.
"GPS has certain tasks that it's very good at," said Coombs. "Obviously, it's very good at identifying where an offender is, there specific geographic location. But, it doesn't tell us what there doing or who there around and these are important pieces of information that I think a lot of community members don't really realize is not included in that supervisory plan."
Coombs said it's time to rely more on parole and less on gadgets. ..Source.. by KCBS.com
No comments:
Post a Comment