Legislator Wants to Track Child Sex Offenders for Life

News 10 | May 3, 2005

Instead, the bill would specify a lifetime of global position satellite monitoring as a condition of parole. The parolee's location would be constantly tracked via a GPS ankle bracelet. The bracelet would transmit an offender's location to a satellite, which would then beam the information to law enforcement officials.

State Senator Jeff Denham, R-Merced, sees a need for the constant tracking. "If someone has committed this kind of act against a child 12 or younger I think there's no penalty too stiff," Denham said. "I think that by allowing a lifetime of GPS that should deter crime." Denham wants his measure to take effect immediately if approved.

Civil rights groups and some attorneys have serious reservations about Denham's bill. "Why should these individuals, without any kind of discretion or judicial oversight, have a lifetime of tracking by government?" questioned Ignacio Hernandez of California Attorneys for Criminal Justice. He expressed worries that Denham's bill would open the door to greater government surveillance. "We are concerned once we have government endorsing GPS tracking of individuals and databases," he said. "Where are we going to draw the line?"

How well violent sex offenders are monitored has been a source of concern in recent weeks. There have been two high-profile child abductions and murders in Florida allegedly committed by known sexual offenders. In one of the cases, the suspect had moved and not informed local law enforcement, which is a condition of Florida's Megan's law.

Today Florida Gov. Jeb Bush signed the Jessica Lunsford Act into law. The law specifies a mandatory prison sentence of 25 years to life for people convicted of certain sex crimes against children 11 and younger. Once offenders are freed, they will tracked for life by a GPS monitoring device.

Senate Public Safety Committee has scheduled a hearing on SB 722 for Tuesday.

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