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Saturday, May 09, 2009

Ind. Law - "More States Use GPS to Track Abusers"

Ariana Green of the NY Times reports today in a lengthy story that begins:

NEWBURYPORT, Mass. — When Theresa, a 51-year-old mother of two living near this coastal town, filed for a restraining order against her husband, she thought it would help put an end to the beatings, death threats and stalking that had tormented her family for years.

She won the order, but her husband, Joel, a West Point graduate with a master’s degree who police reports say hid 17 guns in their home, did not seem to care. He violated the restraining order three times, she said.

“He’d come to our child’s school and beat both of us up in front of everyone,” Theresa said.

In Massachusetts, where about one-quarter of restraining orders are violated each year, according to the state’s probation office, a recent law has expanded the use of global positioning devices to include domestic abusers and stalkers who have violated orders of protection. A judge ordered Joel to wear a Global Positioning System monitor, alerting law enforcement officials if he went near his wife’s house, her work or their children’s school.

“It was the first time I could turn my house alarm off and feel O.K.,” said Theresa, who has since been divorced and who insisted that only her first name be used, to protect her children’s privacy.

Twelve other states have passed similar legislation — most recently, Indiana this week — and about 5,000 domestic abusers are being tracked nationwide, said George Drake, who oversees Colorado’s Electronic Monitoring Resource Center, which gathers data from equipment vendors.

Indiana's new law, which was signed by Gov. Daniels on May 7th, is HEA 1578. See the pertinent language on p. 13 of the bill. See also the definition on p. 7.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on May 9, 2009 02:42 PM
Posted to Indiana Law