State lags in use of GPS to stop violence

Leigh Ann Olson cringed when she learned that a North St. Paul police officer had been killed while responding to a domestic violence call two weeks ago. "It totally hit home and brought it all back," she said.

In 2004, Olson's ex-husband fatally shot their 5-year-old daughter, Mikayla, before killing himself. The common denominator: The men who killed both Mikayla and officer Richard Crittenden had repeatedly ignored orders of protection.

It's a scenario that plays out frequently across the country, where three women are typically killed each day in domestic disputes. About a quarter of their killers violated orders of protection, research shows.

To stem the violence, legislators in nearly a dozen states have passed laws in recent years allowing courts to slap satellite tracking devices on the ankles of abusive ex-partners. If they enter certain prohibited zones -- such as the areas surrounding a woman's home, workplace or daycare -- an alarm is triggered to warn police and the victim.

Advocates say the GPS devices, which are worn by fewer than 5,000 men, have reduced attacks and saved the lives of many battered women. In Minnesota, where more than 200 women have been killed in domestic disputes since 2000, lawmakers have largely ignored the issue.

"It really would have been helpful in my situation," said Olson, who called police more than a dozen times to complain that her ex-husband, John Tester, was threatening her despite protection orders. "I went through all the right channels and Mikayla still ended up getting killed. Maybe GPS tracking wouldn't work in everyone's case, but it certainly would have played a major factor in what happened to me."

While some law enforcement experts are skeptical about the effectiveness of GPS monitoring, Harvard Law School lecturer Diane Rosenfeld said it can help battered women and police, who have long been flummoxed by the ineffectiveness of protection orders. Last year, nearly 30 percent of all protection orders were violated in Minnesota.

"They throw up their hands and say we can't do anything about it, so that's where GPS technology is so incredibly valuable," said Rosenfeld, who helped lawmakers draft GPS laws in several states. "It's saving lives and it's an idea whose time has come because the technology matches a very serious need in law enforcement's ability to effectively address domestic violence."

In the greater Newburyport area north of Boston, 14 offenders were ordered to wear GPS-tracking bracelets in the last three years after police determined that they were likely to harm their ex-partners. Since then, Newburyport has seen no homicides related to domestic abuse. Meanwhile, such incidents nearly tripled in the rest of the state.

"When offenders know they're being monitored, and when they know that there will be swift sanctions for violations, they have shown that they can contain their behavior," said Kelly Dunne, associate director of the Jeanne Geiger Crisis Center near Boston.

Civil rights advocates have challenged GPS tracking in some states, arguing that it infringes on the rights of those who never violate orders of protection.

"It's disturbing that before someone is convicted, they are essentially put on paroled release," said Chuck Samuelson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota.

1990s project was scrapped

Minnesota lawmakers first considered the idea of electronic monitoring in 1992, passing a little-known law that called for a pilot project in Anoka and Washington counties. But the trial never took place.

"No technology exists ... which will protect or enhance the safety of victims of domestic abuse," according to the 1993 Corrections Department report, which questioned the cost effectiveness of electronic monitoring.

But Cyndi Cook, director of the Minnesota Coalition for Battered Women, said times have changed.

"Great strides have been made and it's a good time to revisit the issue," Cook said.

In 2008, 3,119 of the 10,798 protective orders issued in Minnesota were violated. Despite those large numbers, barely 100 individuals have been locked up in Minnesota for violating protection orders.

"These people are not getting it: They're committing domestic assaults, they're getting convicted, and they're violating [protective] orders and they keep doing it," said Paul Young, chief of the violent crime division of the Anoka County attorney's office. "I think we have to look at something if we're serious about giving meat to these orders, and maybe that's technology."

Ramsey County probation director Carol Roberts said the technology still has a long way to go. Malls or concrete structures, for example, can interfere with tracking.

"If anyone says that GPS or electronic monitoring gives you a jail without walls, that would be incredibly misleading," Roberts said. "It's never going to stop a crime from occurring."

Washington County Attorney Doug Johnson said he wants to know more about how GPS devices have helped in other states, but he questions whether counties can afford the devices. That has been a major problem in Illinois, where many counties have not used GPS tracking because they say the state hasn't provided enough money to pay for the program.

But advocates say GPS tracking is cheaper than jailing offenders. The devices cost $25 a day per offender, compared to $75 to lock someone up, according to George Drake, community corrections manager for the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center in Denver.

Still, proponents say GPS tracking should be part of a broader strategy to reduce domestic violence. Re-offending rates jump back up once bracelets are removed from abusers, according to Pitt County Sheriff Division Chief John Guard, who has been using GPS tracking in North Carolina for three years.

A tragic death in St. Paul

North St. Paul Police Chief Tom Lauth doesn't know if GPS tracking could have saved Crittenden, who was shot with his own gun after responding to a call two weeks ago. The killer, Devon Dockery, had twice violated civil orders of protection, but Dockery was able to sneak into the apartment of his estranged wife and set up an ambush that claimed Crittenden's life and left his partner wounded when the officers showed up to check the apartment for intruders.

Obviously, Lauth said, the element of surprise would have been reduced and the police response might have been different if Dockery had been wearing a device that warned police he was on the premises.

"This is a tragic outcome here and we have to sit back and take a look and see if there is anything we can do to try to reduce this type of thing from happening again," Lauth said. "With new technologies emerging, we're going to have to take a look."

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