State implementing sex offender tracking system
The Legislature appropriated $2.5 million to set up pilot projects in several counties to make sex offenders wear an ankle bracelet that uses a global positioning system to track their every move.
Those counties are Shelby, Davidson, Knox, Sullivan, Bradley, McMinn, Polk, Rutherford, Cannon, Montgomery and Sumner.
After a delay of a few months, a vendor for the project was selected in May and board officials plan to have some offenders in the system by the end of this week and as many as 650 by next month.
There are about 1,500 sex offenders under the board’s supervision, but not all of them will be placed in the system until it is graded.
The one-year pilot program will be independently evaluated by the Criminal Justice Department at Middle Tennessee State University and regular reports will be made to the Legislature regarding the program’s progress and results.
After the trial period, the Legislature will decide the future of the program. However, board officials are confident about its success.
“It’s a very good tool to confirm that offenders are abiding by the system we have them in,” Kirk Smith, the program’s director, said Wednesday. “This gives us a chance to monitor them on an ongoing basis.”
The tracking technology was first used in Florida in the late 1990s and since has spread to several other states, such as Georgia.
The system allows law enforcement to build maps with “zones of exclusion” for sex offenders. It also allows probation officers to determine whether the felons they supervise are going to work during the day, going home at night and staying away from restricted areas, such as a schoolyard or playground.
The bracelet sets off an alarm if an offender enters those restricted areas or tries to remove the device, which could result in a violation of probation.
Jennifer Johnson, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, said the program is an asset.
“We applaud anything that will give law enforcement an extra layer in tracking offenders,” Johnson said. “It will allow us to know unequivocally what they’re doing.”
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On the Net:
State Board of Probation and Parole: http://www2.state.tn.us/bopp/home.htm
Tennessee Bureau of Investigation: http://www.tbi.state.tn.us/