GPS anklets can help in collaring criminals

Some violent parolees in
California are being
monitored with the anklets.

SACRAMENTO BEE

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Authorities have begun monitoring some of Sacramento’s most violent gang members with global-positioning-system anklets, a pilot program that police say will deter felons from committing more crimes and provide investigators with volumes of street intelligence.

Five recently paroled gang members were fitted with the anklets Tuesday, bringing to 19 the number of violent parolees in Sacramento County being monitored by the state’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the Sacramento Police Department, officials said.

The parolees being monitored are “the worst of the worst,” including gang members who served time in a state prison after being convicted of violent or gun-related crimes, said Sgt. Marc Coopwood of the Sacramento Police Department.

The anklets — a condition of their paroles — tell police where each of the monitored parolees is at all times, allowing authorities to tell if one of them has violated parole or been present when a crime was committed.

“This is by far the most law-enforcement-friendly equipment I’ve seen in a long, long time,” Coopwood said.

Identical programs are being used in San Bernardino and Fresno.

The system was brought to Sacramento in early July.

Authorities said Sacramento was chosen as one of the pilot program’s locations because of its large population of gang members.

Looking to expand

Officials said they hope to expand the program locally and statewide.

“It’s in the infancy stage, but the potential is endless,” Coopwood said, adding that law-enforcement agencies in Texas and Arkansas have contacted him asking for information on the program.

Under the state Penal Code, monitoring anklets can be placed on any gang members or gang associates when they are paroled from prison, said Craig Luker, an agent of the state corrections department’s Sacramento gang unit.

Those given the anklets will wear them for the duration of their paroles.

The system already has resulted in the arrests of two paroled gang members in Sacramento, officials said.

Monitored man

One of the men, a high-ranking gang member who was paroled after serving 17 years in state prison on a manslaughter charge, was spending long periods of time at a house that was not the address listed on his parole record.

After monitoring the man for about a week, police went to the house where he had been staying.

With police swarming, the man tossed a backpack holding a loaded .22-caliber semi-automatic handgun out a window, nearly landing the bag in the arms of a waiting police officer, authorities said.

A few days later, a man told police that a parolee had broken another man’s jaw in a fight over a girl.

The parolee — who was being monitored by the GPS unit — told authorities he was somewhere else at the time.

His anklet told police otherwise, and eventually the man changed his story.