In Slain Gir’l’s Name, Officials Seek A Gps Eye On Offenders
Law enforcement officials in Florida are urging state lawmakers to spend $35 million in 2005 to employ the VeriTracks system, which uses GPS technology to follow criminals released from prison, and then cross-references those sites each night with criminal activity.
The system, which transmits a signal every minute from an ankle bracelet to the satellite tracking device, is already being used in four counties in Florida.
The law enforcement officials propose putting the tracking device on up to 10,600 offenders throughout Florida. Police officials claim they are primarily interested in keeping an eye on criminals after they are released because 50 percent of the 900,000 violent or property crimes in 2003 were done by repeat offenders.
The impetus for officials’ request to deploy the VeriTracks system was the murder of 11-year-old Carlie Smith by a criminal who violated his probation a month prior to her death.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from the St. Petersburg Times (FL) (02/19/04) P. 1B; James, Joni .