Posted on 03/01/2003 1:08:08 PM PST by freepatriot32
When serial child molester Brian DeVries is released somewhere in San Jose, every move he makes will be tracked by a Global Positioning System device he will wear as an electronic tamper-proof ankle bracelet and carry like a lunchbox.
Authorities say if he walked toward an elementary school playground, the portable tracking device -- about the size of two VHS tapes sandwiched together -- would sound a silent electronic alarm sent through a satellite in space.
The warning -- usually sent as a text message to a pager -- can be transmitted from the satellite to three places: the Florida company that makes the device, a state Department of Mental Health contractor, and the San Jose police.
That's how things are supposed to work when DeVries -- who has admitted to molesting 50 boys and last year had himself surgically castrated -- is released from a state mental hospital to live in San Jose, possibly as soon as next month.
A judge on Monday ordered the 44-year-old be released from the Sexually Violent Predator Program at Atascadero State Hospital.
As part of his highly unusual and restricted release, DeVries must be tracked full time by a GPS, the high-tech law enforcement tool being used around the country as both an electronic deterrent and a relatively low-cost way of keeping track of sex offenders.
But it has never been used for this type of felon in California, according to the state Department of Mental Health.
State officials are watching this case to see whether it works, because right behind DeVries are hundreds of sexually violent predators who, like him, may one day be released with conditions that include a GPS system.
Yet local police say GPS tracking cannot stop sexual offenders from attacking if they're determined to molest.
``It's an analytical tool more than anything, not a panacea,'' said San Jose police Sgt. Tim Porter, head of the police department's sex offender registration unit. ``It doesn't replace surveillance.''
Nora Romero, a spokeswoman for the Mental Health Department, said the mandated GPS was ``never meant to be a preventive device. It's more so the offender knows that we know where he has been.''
She said the department's contractors are not required to monitor the offender full time, but to look periodically at ``daily patterns,'' because many child molestations occur after a period of ``nurturing.''
``There has to be due diligence from parents, local law enforcement and the state and we take our responsibility very seriously,'' Romero said. ``But there are no guarantees that a sexually violent predator won't re-offend.''
And that has some residents in San Jose, where the system will be a test case, upset and concerned.
``They are fooling themselves that someone can be watched that closely with these tracking devices,'' said Vycky Wilkes, a working San Jose mother of three.
``Kids don't just hang out at schools and parks. What happens then?'' she asked Tuesday. ``Trouble doesn't have to go to a child. A child can go to trouble.''
But the officials and lawyers monitoring this case are hoping the device works.
``We're not opposed to the GPS in no small part because it protects Brian,'' said Brian Matthews, who is DeVries' attorney. ``If a child is molested in San Jose he will be one of the first people they will look at. But they will know where he is.''
Said Dana Overstreet, the Santa Clara County prosecutor involved in the case: ``It makes me feel a lot better than if he didn't have it.''
The Mental Health Department will use the SMART system created and managed by Pro Tech Monitoring in Odessa, Fla., to track DeVries. Company president and CEO Steve Chapin said the system works like a ``virtual jail.'' He said his company is operating about 2,500 such monitoring systems in 28 states.
The system, which will cost the Department of Mental Health $4,000 to $5,000 to track DeVries, reports the whereabouts of its subject in close to real time. Meshed with mapping software, the data shows exactly where the person is -- down to the side of a single street, Chapin said.
it is expected to be programmed with all San Jose schools and other child-centric areas such as playgrounds and arcades, police said. They said it is also programmed to track whether DeVries stays home at night, attends treatment, and stays within the city's borders at all times.
Marc Renzema, a professor of criminology at Kutztown University in Pennsylvania, lamented the lack of statistical studies to show the effectiveness of the systems. He and others said the limitations of the systems tend to be downplayed.
``If someone is going to abduct a child from school, they are going to do it,'' said Peggy Conway, editor of the Journal of Offender Monitoring. ``All technologies have their limitations.''
So9
Nah..
It was considered, but they don't fuction underwater.
That will only happen when fathers are willing to but their kids ahead of their own freedom.
Trust me on this, if one of my kids ever got molested as a child or even now as adults, he who hurts my kid would much prefer to face the police.
But to many fathers simply call the police, who in most cases seem to care even less than the parents do.
There was a time in this country when men killed those who molested their kids, when rape was punishable by death, when, well you get the point.
Seems to me, that those who love their kids more than a second income, those who keep their wives home to homeschool and get by on just one income, they are the ones whose kids do not get molested, seems the molesters know what kids they can attack and get away with it and which kids have parents that love them enough to risk prison or even death to keep their kids safe.
And pray tell, what is the differance between a child molester and an abortionist? Only differance is, the molested kid, may walk away alive, the baby that has a mother that takes him in, trapped within her womb, to be slaughtered by a butcher with an md, has no chance at all.
The system, which will cost the Department of Mental Health $4,000 to $5,000 to track DeVries
What's the rental charge for a handgun for a few minutes and the price of a single bullet?
I actually like the idea that serial sex offenders can be tracked at all times.
Only God can kill the soul, but you are right, the abortionist is much worse than the child molester and I think child molesters should face death.
And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear God which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Matthew 10:28
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