Suffolk bill requiring GPS on sex offenders signed

How does one spell ILLEGAL? Laws cannot force someone to give up constitutional rights to receive services. ACLU where are you?

4-2-2010 New York:

Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy said Thursday that he has signed legislation to require homeless sex offenders who receive housing vouchers from the county to wear GPS tracking devices.

Legislators last month approved the initiative, which they said would affect about a dozen offenders.

Since New York State earlier this year ordered the county to close its temporary housing for homeless.. ..Source.. REID J. EPSTEIN

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Tracking Homeless Sex Offenders (With GPS)

If registrants are homeless, is it likely they can pay for GPS? So, this expense would be totally borne by taxpayer money; not smart...

11-15-2009 Ohio:

DAYTON, Ohio — A Dayton area lawmaker wants Tier 3 homeless sex offenders to be tracked using either a GPS unit or a microchip.

State Rep. Clayton Luckie said his proposed bill is necessary after police arrested and charged a homeless sex offender for attacking two women near a hospital.

The bill is still in the early stages and had not yet been formally introduced.

"The public has safety awareness. They have the opportunity to know where predators are," said Luckie.

Tier 3 sex offenders are required to register with the sheriff's office every 90 days for life. Luckie said it's hard to keep track of them if they're homeless. That's why he believes his proposed bill will help keep women and children safe.

"The most important thing is to give the judges the discretion. Who needs to be monitored and who does not need to be monitored," said Luckie.

Luckie wants them to either wear a monitoring device or be micro-chipped.

"There's a little device that you can take a little needle and put the device right into a person's arm" he said.

"The bracelet idea is probably okay, but the microchip embedded in people, that's just not a good idea at all," said Sara Carlson, who is against the bill.

Carlson said it's just another example of too much government intrusion.

"His heart's in the right place, but I mean, it's our liberties that are at jeopardy here. Even the homeless sex offenders have some liberties," she said.

Carlson, who is unemployed, also isn't happy with the cost of the program. Luckie said it'll cost $40 a month to monitor homeless sex offenders.

"For the peace of mind of residents of the city of Dayton, I think we can apply for a grant or some federal funds to help us do this as a pilot project," said Luckie.

"Our tax dollars being spent. So certainly, there's better ways of keeping track. Maybe, oh I don't know, parole officers," said Carlson.

The proposed legislation is expected to be formally introduced to the House next week. ..Source.. by ONN TV.com

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WA- Homeless sex offenders tracked by satellite

11-4-2008 Washington:

A spy in the sky is keeping track of the riskiest sex offenders. Satellite tracking is monitoring their every step.

"Looking at the terrain, I'm guessing he's sleeping on that hillside," says Jeff Haberman, a community corrections officer, as he watches a homeless sex offender move around town in 'real time.'

The sex offender has a global positioning system (GPS) device strapped to his ankle.

"Now it looks like he's walking up to an area where I know there' are sometimes free breakfasts," says State Sen. Debbie Regala, as she gets briefed on the system by Haberman.

"It looks like he got on a ... looks like he got on LINK. They ride the transit quite a bit."

All homeless sex offenders - 90 of them so far - must now wear GPS devices as they move around town so the state always knows where they are.

For the sex offender there actually is a benefit to wearing one of these - because if a crime is committed this device will prove they weren't anywhere near the scene.

The call for tracking came in the wake of the Tacoma kidnapping and murder of Zina Linnik by sex offender Terapon Adhan.

Though, Regala says, even if he'd been wearing a GPS, it wouldn't necessarily have stopped him.

"There's no way that wearing something like this prevents you from committing a crime," she says.

But it does help put offenders at the scene of the crime - or eliminates them from suspicion.

And if a sex offender cuts off the device, like David Torrence did earlier this year, there's nothing to prevent these offenders from going on the run. But the system is alerted immediately - and so is the victim in the case.

To get first-hand experience, Sen. Regala is getting her own tracking device for the next several days. As she headed off the system already had a lock on her.

Corrections officers say not only can they track the homeless offenders, but the offenders know they're being watched.

And starting this month all Level-3 sex offenders, the most serious kind, are getting a GPS for the first 30 days after they're released from prison, whether or not they provide a home address. ..News Source.. by Keith Eldridge

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