While GPS devices used to monitor sex offenders played an integral role in the capture of two suspected serial killers last week, early details from the case raise questions about how well the tracking data are routinely monitored. Police say the devices enabled them to trace the movements of ____ ____ ____, 45, and ____ ____, 26, and link the two men to the slayings of at least five women. But the investigation has also painted an unsettling picture of sex offender oversight: According to the police account, the pair…
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Probation officials concede failures in GPS tracking of felons
Los Angeles County probation officials Tuesday conceded widespread failures in their electronic monitoring of felons, in which probation deputies were deluged with meaningless alerts while offenders went untracked for days and weeks at a time. “This is a blueprint of how not to implement a GPS program,” Probation Chief Jerry Powers told the county Board of Supervisors. He said deputies were not at fault, but blamed department administrators and the vendor who sold the county the service.The hearing was triggered by a Feb. 15 story in The Times disclosing that…
Read MoreSex Offender’s Case Won’t Face En Banc Rehearing
PASADENA, Calif. (CN) – The full 9th Circuit should have been called to consider whether to let a sex offender challenge his parole conditions, as the question imperils “our constitutional system’s respect for state sovereignty,” five judges said Tuesday. ____ ____ alleges that California prison officials violated his civil rights by imposing residency and GPS monitoring restrictions typically reserved for sex offenders, even though he had only been convicted in the Golden State for robbery. The state justified the Jessica’s Law parole conditions because of ____’s sexual battery conviction in…
Read MoreGPS monitoring alerts overwhelm probation officers
SACRAMENTO — Electronic monitoring was supposed to help Los Angeles County deal with the influx of thousands of felons moved out of California’s prison system to ease overcrowding. The nation’s largest probation department strapped GPS ankle monitors on the highest-risk of those convicts, expecting the satellite receivers to keep tabs on where they spent their days and nights, and therefore keep the public safe. Instead, agents are drowning in a flood of meaningless data, masking alarms that could signal real danger. County probation officers are inundated with alerts, and at times received…
Read MoreOne in four GPS devices on criminals in L.A. County were faulty
One in every four GPS devices used to track serious criminals released in Los Angeles County has proved to be faulty, according to a probation department audit — allowing violent felons to roam undetected for days or, in some cases, weeks. The problems included batteries that wouldn’t hold a charge and defective electronics that generated excessive false alarms. One felon, county officials said, had to have his GPS monitor replaced 11 times over a year; for five days during the 45-day audit period, his whereabouts were unknown. Full Article Related: Audit:…
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