Centre County District Attorney Michael Madeira said he is potentially supportive of a program using global positioning satellite tracking of sexual offenders in Pennsylvania, but has his reservations.
"It is interesting, although clearly there are at least potential Constitutional issues that need to be considered," Madeira said. "But with the safety of children being one of our paramount concerns, I'm very interested in exploring it."
A pilot program testing the effectiveness of such a system is nearing completion, a Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole spokeswoman said Wednesday.
The program is in response to Pennsylvania Auditor General Jack Wagner's recommendation in July to require at least five years of GPS monitoring for sex offenders whose victims are children. Wagner also urged the members of the Pennsylvania House and Senate judiciary committees to mandate a similar length of tracking for offenders who do not comply with Megan's Law.
Megan's Law requires them to register their addresses with state police upon release from prison.
According to Wagner's report, the state had lost track of 923, or nearly 10 percent, of the state's about 9,800 registered sex offenders.
Centre County does not use GPS tracking, according to 2007 statistics from the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole.
"I like the idea of knowing where sex offenders are at any time, but the devil is in the details," Madeira said. "Who has access to data? What can it or can't it be used for? It's going to take a fleshing out of details before I can give my support."
The board conducted the 30-day test program twice, once in July and the other in a nearly completed September test, said Sherry Tate, director of the office of policy, legislative affairs and communications for the Parole Board.
"If the technology can provide protection ... then certainly the parole board would consider it and work through the policy issues," Tate said. "We previously had done a pilot which had shown the technology was not quite there yet. The difficulty is that you don't want to create a false sense of security in the minds of parents."
Current state law permits but does not require both state and county probation and parole authorities to track offenders by GPS as part of their supervision requirements, said Ivan Anderson, communication specialist for the Pennsylvania department of the Auditor General.
As it stands now, 14 of Pennsylvania's 67 counties are using GPS tracking for sex offenders, according to Wagner's report.
Lauren Taylor, executive director of the state's sexual offender assessment board, said GPS is simply another supervision tool.
"This is about what really speaks to public safety," Taylor said. "Are you enhancing public safety by spending a boatload of money on this?"
Taylor said 93 percent of victims of sex-related crimes know their offenders, so it doesn't necessarily matter where that person is positioned.
"With sex offenders, GPS may or may not be the most effective way to spend tax dollars to keep the public safe," Taylor said.
Gov. Ed Rendell is waiting for results of the pilot program before passing judgement on GPS monitoring, said Chuck Ardo, the governor's press secretary.
"The governor's concern is the public safety so he would like to use as much technology to help protect the public as is possible," Ardo said. "But until we have results it's difficult to say whether the program would work on the large scale."
