In slain girl's name, officials seek a GPS eye on offenders
By JONI JAMES
Published February 19, 2004
TALLAHASSEE - Evoking the slaying of 11-year-old Carlie Brucia, Florida law enforcement officials descended on the state Capitol Wednesday to urge key lawmakers to invest $35-million next year to keep minute-by-minute track of thousands of paroled criminals.
Pitched as the next technological revolution in crime-fighting and already up and running in four Florida counties including Pinellas and Citrus, the VeriTracks system uses global positioning technology to track criminals released from jail or prison. It then cross-references those locations nightly with criminal activity.
The system sends a signal from an ankle bracelet to the satellite tracking device every 60 seconds.
The theory: Former prisoners who know their every movement is being tracked are far less likely to become repeat offenders. And when they do commit a new crime, law enforcement has a powerful new tool to help convict them again.
Officials hold up the Carlie Brucia case as a prime example.
"The fact is the question became, what else could the judge have done" when the man facing a first-degree murder charge in Carlie's death, Joseph P. Smith, violated his probation a month before the 11-year-old's death, said Everett Rice, Pinellas County sheriff. Rice is one of more than a dozen top local law enforcement officials who pressed their case in meetings with House members and House Speaker Johnnie Byrd.
"The answer is, had it been available, the judge could have put Joseph Smith on GPS tracking," Williams said.
It's unclear if Smith would have been assigned to the proposed tracking system. The proposal would put the GPS tracking device on as many as 10,600 offenders across the state, and officials acknowledged Wednesday it would likely be reserved for "the worst of the worst." Smith violated his probation by testing positive for drugs and not paying probation costs, a common problem.
Had Smith been tracked, it might not have prevented Carlie's death, but "Carlie Brucia's body would have been found within minutes" rather than days, said Brevard County Sheriff Phil Williams.
Law enforcement officials weren't specific as to which offenders would be assigned the monitoring devices.
The system is considered a leap forward from the tracking systems used by the state Department of Corrections for house arrest, which tells only when a subject leaves home. It also is an upgrade from GPS tracking systems corrections officials have used since 1998, which logged a parolee's location without any cross-reference to criminal activity.
The idea has found support among some powerful lawmakers.
"You don't have to sell me, I'm sold on it," Byrd, R-Plant City, told police officials Wednesday.
But it's far from clear whether the entire $35-million can be found in a tight budget year.
The law enforcement officials also could run into opposition from civil liberties groups if the program allows the GPS monitoring of suspects before trial, as a bill filed by Rep. Kevin Ambler, R-Tampa, earlier this month calls for. "Nationally we have taken the position that if it is used on people on probation or parole as an alternative to remaining in incarceration, the ACLU generally does not oppose it," said Larry Spalding, Florida lobbyist for the American Civil Liberties Union. "But we are much less enthusiastic about it being used in pretrial."
Police officials said they are largely interested in monitoring criminals after they are released because half the 900,000 violent or property crimes last year were committed by repeat offenders.
Wednesday's presentations left little doubt what company would be first in line if the state embraces the idea: General Dynamics. Law enforcement officials said the defense contractor's VeriTracks system is the only product that offers quick, sophisticated cross-referencing of a parolee's GPS coordinates with crime reports.
Plus, the company already has inroads in the state. Besides operating the system in four counties and pending contracts with at least two more, it has donated hundreds of GPS ankle bracelets to the Department of Corrections so parolees can be monitored by the VeriTracks system.
Tim Moore, former Florida Department of Law Enforcement commissioner, is the company's legislative lobbyist. Gary Yates, who retired from FDLE four years ago, is the sales director for the VeriTracks system.
