Parole Board: GPS Sex Offenders Monitoring a Success

TRENTON –– A two-year-old program that monitors high-risk sex offenders has been a great success, according to a state Parole Board report.
According to the State Police registry, there are currently eight Tier III sex offenders registered in Cape May County, including a woman. One offender is currently in custody, thus at least seven offenders are subject to this monitoring program.
Starting in August 2005, the board began equipping all released Tier III sex offenders with around-the-clock Global Positioning System (GPS) monitoring.
“Our GPS monitoring has become a vital component of the State Parole Board’s ‘containment’ approach to sex offender supervision,” Parole Board Chairman Peter Barnes said Dec. 5 in a press release. “This monitoring strengthens public safety by tracking the most dangerous convicted sex offenders living in New Jersey communities.”
He said the program has allowed the board to intercept new violations, reminds offenders that their movements are watched and recorded, and its data is a resource for investigating new crimes.
According to the report, only one of the program’s 225 offenders has been implicated in a new sex crime. The report also suggests the program has led to a “significantly lower recidivism rate than nationwide data indicates for high-risk sex offenders.”
Capt. Sean Asay, who runs the Parole Board’s monitoring system, told the Herald the GPS device comes in three pieces: a permanently mounted ankle bracelet transmitter, a cell phone-sized tracking device that must be carried by the offenders when away from their residences, and a battery charger.
Asay said the tracking device collects and stores location data every 10 seconds and reports the data every couple minutes.
“We are alerted if an offender attempts to leave the state, tamper with the GPS components or leave home without the tracking device,” Asay said. “The tracking devices are also used for communication through text messages.”
Asay’s office is currently working on adding phone capabilities to the tracking devices for additional communication avenues, he said.
Statewide, there are approximately 170 offenders in the GPS monitoring program, but Asay said the number changes from day to day. He said there could be up to 200 being monitored by the end of the year.
The Parole Board can also put non-Tier III offenders in the program based on their risk to the public so there could be more GPS monitored offenders in this county, Asay said.
There are a total of 70 sex offenders of all tiers registered in the county and over 2,400 throughout the state.
Contact Hart at (609) 886-8600 Ext 35 or at: jhart@cmcherald.com