MOSCOW, April 16 (RIA Novosti) – GPS tracking is not a completely effective tool to prevent crime, a spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said, following the gruesome rapes and killings of four women by two monitored sex offenders.
"Unfortunately, GPS monitoring cannot always deter crimes," Luis Patino said Tuesday, according to the Associated Press.
"They are tools that show us where a monitored offender has been and can place them at the scene of a crime. A monitor has no way to detect whether a crime is being committed," he added, explaining the limits of GPS technology.
Registered sex offenders Franc Cano and Steven Dean Gordon were charged Tuesday in California with four counts each of rape and murder.
Two years ago, the pair cut the GPS trackers off their ankles, and caught a bus to Las Vegas and were captured two weeks later in a casino.
Overlooking the previous failure of the GPS technology, prosecutors outfitted the released criminals with new monitors, which did nothing to stop them from further raping and killing.
Orange County’s Senior Deputy District Attorney Larry Yellin, told AP he had little information on the proper use of the GPS anklets to monitoring Cano's and Gordon's movements.
The regulation of how the devices are used are set by the agency overseeing the specific offender, meaning state parole and federal probation agents are to be held accountable for proper use of GPS tracking.
Justifying the use of the GPS ankle bracelets, law enforcement authorities said the monitors did help them link Cano and Gordon to the killings. Such a defensive statement casts doubt on whether the problem is with the technology, or the entire US criminal justice system.
Although highly popular – more than 100,000 GPS anklets are currently tracking criminals across the US – electronic monitoring has faced serious criticism as the devices are hardly a foolproof way to ensure released felons abide by the law.
