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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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State
Rep. Rick Taylor |
  
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Taylor teams with auditor general in call for GPS tracking of sexual predators
HARRISBURG, July 22 – State Rep. Rick Taylor, D-Montgomery, today said he agrees with the conclusion of a new report from state Auditor General Jack Wagner that a global positioning system offers the best way to track registered sex offenders.
Taylor joined Wagner at a Harrisburg news conference where Wagner outlined the special report and its conclusions.
The report noted that, as of last month, the state had lost track of 923 of the nearly 10,000 sex offenders required to be listed on the Megan's Law Web site maintained by the state police. Two of the missing offenders were sexually violent predators. The Auditor General's Office had reported similar problems in a 2006 report.
Currently, sex offenders are required to notify state police of their residence by mail annually, though violent predators are supposed to make notification four times a year.
In his conclusions, Wagner recommended that the state turn to GPS tracking to pinpoint each violent sexual offender's movements throughout the day. He said he would ask the General Assembly to enact legislation to authorize a GPS tracking program.
Taylor already has introduced a bill that would provide the go-ahead for GPS. The bill (H.B. 2612), in addition to authorizing GPS tracking, would establish penalties for tampering with a monitoring device and require that the cost of the monitoring be paid for by the offender. The bill is now in the House Judiciary Committee.
"The global positioning system is our best and most effective way to monitor sex offenders; the population is small enough to make it feasible and is not burdensome," Taylor said. "To not pass such commonsense legislation simply would be nothing less than us falling down on the job in our most basic duty – protecting the public."
Taylor said too many sexual predators are slipping through the cracks in the current reporting system.
"Having GPS monitoring is an effective way to monitor sex offenders who prey on our children, especially those who have shown themselves to be sexually violent predators," Taylor said, "Protecting our most vulnerable citizens, our children, must be at the very top of our priority list."
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