GPS Monitoring for Sex Offenders

Post #2

Sex offenders are all around us, whether we know it or not. The stereotype that a sex offender has scraggly hair, unclean fingernails, and gives off a creepy vibe is not always true. There are people dressed up in business suits, who are teachers at public schools and even neighbors who seem to have the cookie cutter family who hold the secret of being a sex offender. The government is trying to protect citizens and make sure people are aware of sex offenders in their area. California passed Megan’s Law in 2004 which makes sex offenders register their residence once they are convicted of a sexual crime and every year 5 days before or after their own birthday. There is no guarantee that the government can keep track of all the sex offenders in California alone. Some sex offenders follow the rules and register every year while others fall off the radar, so to speak.

The case of Jaycee Lee Dugard who was kidnapped by a sex offender who registered every year and had routine check ups from local law enforcement officers has raised questions concerning whether more restrictions should be placed on sex offenders and what law enforcement needs to do to make sure situations such as this do not happen again.

The county of Tehama in Northern California is stepping up their law enforcement this year at the local Tehama County Fair. The law enforcement officials will be using global positioning system tracking technology to monitor sex offenders. The event will be running from Sept 24^th through September 27^th. Parole agents will establish an exclusion zone around the perimeter of the fair grounds. The Redding GPS Parole Unit and Tehama County Sheriff’s Officer are teaming up to track and monitor the activities surrounding the fair. A sex offender parolee who enters the fair will set off an alarm in which agents on-site will then track the offender’s movement and investigate if they break any violations. In Tehama County every sex offender who is placed on active parole has GPS monitoring as part of their supervision.

Every violent or unstable sex offender in the state of California should have a GPS monitoring system regardless if they are on parole or not. There is a possibility that Jaycee Lee Dotard would not have been raped and kidnapped for 18 years of her life if Phillip Garrido was tracked via GPS in which he would have been caught driving by a bus stop where local children catch a ride to get to school. The government needs to come up with better ideas as how to stop sex offenders from recidivism. How many more victims will fall to sex offenders before the government steps in and does something to halt the epidemic?

Record Searchlight Staff. (2009, September 16). GPS will monitor sex offenders at fair. http://www.redding.com/news/2009/sep/16/gps-will-monitor-sex-offenders-fair/.