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Suffolk expands use of GPS for convicted sex offenders A report from the Suffolk County ProbationDepartment, filed with the Legislature last week, recommends continuation of a pilot program to electronically monitor convicted sex offenders on probation with a GPS tracking system. The report comes on the heels of a measure proposed by S.C. Legs. John M. Kennedy Jr. (R - Nesconset) and Lou D'Amaro (D-North Babylon) which was unanimously passed by the legislature in June and signed into law by Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy on July 13th. That measure allocated $128,449 in additional funding to expand the pilot program that lawmakers supported for its possible future benefits. "Sex offenders are a major concern," said D'Amaro. "The program is key in safeguarding our community." It was not until last week however, that the assessment of the program was finalized, confirming in part what the lawmakers had suspected- that the program should at least move forward. The report noted that during the one-year pilot program, 90 offenders were monitored. During this period, there were four new arrests among these individuals. Three were for criminal possession of marijuana, misdemeanors. The fourth arrest was for criminal contempt involving an incident in which an offender made telephone contact in violation of an order of protection in place against him. In addition, during the course of the pilot program, one of the sex offenders was charged with having pornographic materials. His probation was revoked and he was incarcerated. Obviously, the use of electronic monitoring cannot be effective in detecting the presence of these materials, the report noted. In addition, the system is limited in that it involves young technology and despite many improvements over the past nine years, it continues to pose some challenges. The system is unable to upload Suffolk County's geocoded daycare and school locations into its GPS software, and batteries on the locator device have to be recharged every 24 hours. Transmission of data to the monitors is dependent on the availability and functioning of cell towers and there is a lack of extensive evaluative data on the long-term outcomes of the programs using this technology. Most significant is the finding that the majority of sex offenses occur in the residence or within the family structure, making the GPS monitoring approach "useless when attempting to safeguard the community" from most of these incidents, the report concluded. Despite that, the report noted that the program should continue as a pilot, and should be monitored along with the evolution of the technology and improvements in cell phone coverage. It also recommended: •development of a fee schedule to defray the cost of the program; •maintaining ongoing contact with vendors to encourage improvements in technology and cell phone coverage; •postponing preparing a request for proposals until the technology stabilizes. "The technology is most effective when utilized on a very selective basis," the report noted. "It should be considered for sex offenders under supervision for the purpose of ensuring that they are getting treatment and for those who are in treatment and are under supervision but are viewed by professionals as being in imminent danger of re-offending," the report stated. The additional funding for the pilot program will effectively double its size. The money was taken from surplus in the Department of Public Works, said officials from the Electronic Monitoring Program. The money would have been used for building repairs and maintenance, but with the reallocation, it will serve to cover salaries and benefits for 10 more probation officers and a supervisor for the final quarter of 2007. Surveillance will increase from 50 GPS monitored sex offenders on probation to 100, roughly 30 to 40 percent of all sex offenders in Suffolk County, officials said. "Something needs to be sacrificed from other departments for this to succeed," said D'Amaro. A department memo back in early March said that capabilities for the program had been maxed out, said Kennedy. "This bill will allow the technology to further evolve yielding positive results." The program requires sex offenders to carry an LCD screen on their waist and an anklet with a charger at home. According to Kennedy, the cost per day, per sex offender is $43, which does not include the convict's regular probation program officer, as compared to $200 a day for incarceration. The cost of device operation will be disbursed by the county and the offenders will remit fee put in place by the respective probation officers. "We definitely think it is worth continuing the pilot program," John Desmond, Director of Suffolk County Probation Dept., stated, "but better equipment is necessary as the technology is still in transition." Desmond said that with the current software, 99 exclusion zones are possible, forcing probation officers to focus on the surrounding neighborhood at the expense of areas located farther away from the offenders' homes.
D'Amaro believes that 99 exclusion zones are better than none and that "overall you have to crawl before you walk."
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