Allen County tests GPS tracking devices for some sex offenders

FORT WAYNE -- State officials are using Allen County as a test ground for a new Global Positioning System intended to monitor sex offenders and violent offenders who are on parole.\nThe Allen County Commissioners approved an agreement Friday permitting the yearlong pilot program, which is needed before a statewide system can be implemented to monitor all of Indiana's sex and violent offenders on parole.\nLast year, lawmakers mandated that all violent and sex offenders released from state prison on parole be constantly monitored.\nHowever, existing monitoring systems use radio frequencies and community corrections staff can detect only when the offender enters or leaves his or her home, said Sheila Hudson, Allen County Community Corrections director.\nNew GPS technology can track an offender's every move and can alert the offender if he or she enters an "exclusion zone." The zones could surround a local park or a victim's home, work or school, said Stan Pflueger, Allen County Community Corrections spokesman.\nHe said the GPS tracking system will be good for the community.\n"For years people like this have been in the community," Pflueger said. "Technology has not allowed us to monitor them at this level of intensity."\nParticipants in the pilot program must have a telephone line in their home, and other adults in the home must allow police to search the home periodically.\nThe state will pay a Colorado company to lease its software and monitoring equipment that goes with the offender.\nThe pilot program is being paid for by the state Department of Correction, which will also pay Allen County $14 a day per person for its case management and staffing.\nCommunity corrections has already hired additional staff to monitor the 50 new offenders and plans to hire a few more, Pflueger said. Currently three people work in the monitoring area each shift.\nThe county commissioners were initially concerned that the pilot program would bring more sex offenders into Allen County. But Hudson said it would not since the program is just for Allen County parolees.