Police Keep Sex Offenders from Stalking County Fairs
Law enforcement is clever in the way it finds new uses for GPS vehicle tracking technologies.
A new application is a GPS tracking version of “fishing” for sex offenders.
Police go to a spot where convicted sex offenders are likely to frequent, activate the GPS tracking system, sit in wait, then catch the criminals in violation of the terms of their parole. Only these criminals aren’t likely to be granted a quick release.
Court-ordered GPS tracking anklets supply the tipoff.
Joseph Valoden Cash, of Gerber, in north-central California, was an easy mark when police posted a special detail at the Tehama District Fairgrounds. The 26-year-old was on parole for committing sexual acts to a child younger than age 14. He was ordered on 24-hour GPS tracking and was fitted with a GPS tracking anklet.
As part of his parole, Cash agreed to avoid all contact with children. Police knew of the violation within 10 minutes of his entering the fairground. He was arrested and escorted away, losing his admission, and his freedom.
Roughly, one of every four registered sex offenders in Tehama County near San Francisco are on parole and are being followed with mandatory GPS tracking anklets.
The GPS tracking anklet works similar to a real-time GPS vehicle tracking system. The GPS tracking unit catches radio signals from the 24 U.S. Department of Defense satellites orbiting earth and those GPS tracking coordinates pinpoint the unit’s location – exact within a few feet. Those coordinates are transmitted through a cellular network to a database that can be viewed remotely on a Web-enabled personal computer. The GPS tracking receiver can be followed, second by second, as it moves across a digital map.
The Tehama County Sheriff’s Department used a feature of real-time GPS tracking systems called geo-fencing at its stakeout of the local fair.
Geo-Fencing Sets Geographic Travel Limits
With geo-fencing, the GPS tracking system operator can remotely restrict the GPS tracking device, and its carrier, from crossing a geographic boundary. In fact, numerous boundaries or “off limits” zones can be set up on a single map.
When a GPS tracking receiver is detected to have breached a geo-fence, an alert is sent to the GPS system operator in the form of an email or text message.
Police in Tehama County set up a geo-fence around the entire perimeter of the county fair and they put all their known and monitored sex offenders on the warning system with GPS tracking. Then, police set up a team on the fair premises, armed with laptops. They waited for the GPS tracking “net” to catch a parolee.
Police had to show proof that Cash broke his pledge to stay away from children. Luckily, a junior-level sheep competition had let out shortly after Cash entered the front gate, dispersing hundreds of children within feet of the offender.
The same kind of GPS tracking operation was successfully run this year at the Shasta County Fair and the California State Fair.
Tehama County Sheriff Clay Parker said that police are entrusted with the public’s safety and it’s wise to use GPS tracking as a means to achieve that end.
GPS tracking is used in many other applications in day-to-day police work. GPS tracking with geo-fencing can be used to enforce restraining orders. GPS tracking devices are secretly planted on the cars and trucks of suspected killers, thieves and drug traffickers to monitor their illegal activities.
Those who have been on the receiving end of GPS tracking often challenge this method of surveillance, arguing that it is an invasion of privacy.
Is it fair to follow a parolee 24/7, assuming that he will eventually fail? What’s next? Keeping gamblers away from the horse track and alcoholics away from their favorite bars?
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Source: Bay Area News Group, San Ramon, CA
Tags: county fair, GPS Tracking, police, sex offenders
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