CHICAGO, IL – Violent gun offenders in the Chicago area who are out on bail and awaiting trial are about to get a new babysitter.
Because apparently it’s safe to have these criminals walking the streets.
Cook County sheriff’s deputies have a plan in the works to use GPS to track the accused criminals who are under their watch. To do it, they say they’ll use satellite technology and global positioning.
The move comes in response to a “decarceration” push from prosecutors.
Repeat offenders, who would in the past have been locked up while they wait for trial, are now walking free.
They’re now held virtually in “E-carceration” instead of in a jail cell.
It entails wearing a tracking bracelet. That is not a new concept but the technology encased in it soon will be.
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart announced last week that his department will transition all electronic monitoring equipment from radio frequency to GPS bracelets.
Except… just last month… they said they couldn’t monitor the criminals. Confused? So are we. More on that in a minute.
Sheriff’s Office Announces Electronic Monitoring Program Transition from Radio Frequency to GPS Bracelets.
Since the beginning of July, we have begun
that transition and expect it to be completed in the coming months. Every EM participant will have a GPS bracelet by October. pic.twitter.com/eOezNvKKyO— Cook County Sheriff’s Office (@CCSOPIO) August 18, 2020
He said the department began that transition at the beginning of July and expects to complete it in the “coming months” and that “every EM participant will have a GPS bracelet by October.”
The sheriff said in a press release that the move is in response to an increased need for the program in the Chicago area. He wrote:
“To address the continued increase of criminal defendants court-ordered to the Sheriff’s Electronic Monitoring (EM) program, currently over 3,300 participants, the Cook County Sheriff’s Office has made the administrative decision to formally transition all EM equipment from radio frequency units to GPS bracelets.”
Sheriff Dart told local TV station WLS that the new program will involve more streamlined technology, developed in part by researchers at the University of Chicago.
In the interview with WLS, he said:
“GPS wasn’t needed originally because these were non-violent offenders. We weren’t really concerned about them out there. Now we’re much more concerned.”
Electronic monitoring started nearly 60 years ago, when graduate students at Harvard started experimenting with the technology.
For at least the last two to three decades, electronic monitoring systems have been using phone lines and in-home control boxes to monitor mostly non-violent drug offenders.
Sheriff Dart told WLS that has since changed. He said a majority of the nearly 3,300 bracelet wearing accused criminals currently on home monitoring devices are facing charges for violent crimes, and some already have violent histories.
He told the news outlet:
“There was never a meeting by anybody to say ‘let’s change it to watching violent people.’ That just was done overnight, and so now it’s been a question of how best to maintain the security of our communities.”
That is already a challenge in a major city known for gun violence and regular spikes in deadly shootings during the summer months. Chicago has been long plagued by gun violence.
Over the past 2 weeks, our officers recovered 14 loaded guns off the streets of Ford Heights, Dolton, Bremen, Harvey, Chicago and the 15th District from people who did not have the proper paperwork to own them. #noFOIDnogun pic.twitter.com/OJf3ljpkY5
— Cook County Sheriff’s Office (@CCSOPIO) August 21, 2020
Just yesterday, Chicago police reported twenty-two people hit by gunfire in the city in a 24-hour period. Last weekend, officers say sixty-five people were shot. Five of them died.
The goal of the heightened technology is to allow deputies to better track potentially dangerous criminals who have been released back into communities.
In his press release, Sheriff Dart said it will also ultimately eliminate the process of CCSO deputies having to set up control boxes in the homes of those in the program. He wrote:
“The new GPS technology does allow for messages to be sent to a participant through the bracelet if the participant is non-compliant with the program. Vibrations, tones and even voice calls can be utilized to communicate with the participant.”
Sheriff Dart told local news outlets that accused criminals who currently wear the older model of ankle bracelets will have them switched out to the newer models during upcoming court appearances.
He reportedly told WLS that he hopes the program isn’t too successful, so that it won’t encourage the release of even more violent criminals back into neighborhoods with a heavy reliance on GPS monitoring.
Of course the irony… is this report from July:
July 8, 2020 – Chicago, Illinois – As if Chicago wasn’t experiencing enough catastrophes and creating elements of worry lately, residents of the area can now add concerns over those on home monitoring not having tabs kept on them.
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart spoke of the enormous amount of people placed on various versions of home arrest and monitoring since COVID concerns became the impetus to having those on electronic monitoring up by 1,000 detainees.
Some are saying the reason for the increase in Chicago violence is because violent offenders are out on electronic monitoring systems and no one is keeping tabs on them. https://t.co/BNepM5Cfit
— FOX 32 News (@fox32news) July 8, 2020
The sheriff explained that he has roughly 150 people right now that are supposed to be keeping an eye on approximately 3,300 detainees placed on home confinement. According to Sheriff Dart, he’s been having to choose between monitoring home-detainees or patrolling the streets at times:
“We need more people to monitor on the street, and we have been unable to get the people to do that.”
Chicago Police Department Chief Fred Waller recently noted that he believes one of the elements attributed to Chicago’s increase in violent crime is the amount of home-confinements dished out during the pandemic:
“When you have that many people, the judges have to recognize the sheriff’s department is not equipped to handle that many people on electronic monitoring.”
What’s most alarming in all this home monitoring is that a majority of those placed on said type of “confinement” are currently facing the likes of gun charges. Not to mention, there are reportedly 43 individuals being electronically monitored from their homes awaiting trial on murders.
Sheriff Dart feels as though that COVID or not, those with the likes of gun charges should be getting held in custody and not placed on home confinement:
“Home monitoring just as a general idea is not a program for people charged with gun offenses. They need to be held in custody.”
Gal Pissetzky, a criminal defense attorney, acknowledges that judges may be putting too many people on electronic monitoring, but feels as though those on said program aren’t responsible for the city’s increased violence:
“I don’t think that the people that are on electronic monitor at home are causing the violence in Chicago.”
Others in the city, such as Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, have different theories about what has caused violence to increase lately.
People often say a broken clock is right twice a day, and it appears Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot hit the nail on the head with her take on what has been the major contributing factors to increases in violence within Chicago.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot blamed the bloody month of June on a “perfect storm” of frustration with the pandemic shutdown and anger at George Floyd’s killing, heightening tension in violent neighborhoods plagued by open-air drug dealing. https://t.co/jfcUqi9LFm
— FOX 32 News (@fox32news) July 2, 2020
Data shows that murders in Chicago jumped up by about 80% within the past month, while arrests dropped by about 50%.
When Mayor Lightfoot was asked about what could have contributed to such a disastrous period within the city of Chicago, she described it as being representative of a “perfect storm.”
What was this perfect storm, one might ask? Well, according to the city mayor, it was a culmination of the COVID shutdowns, the death of George Floyd, and increased tensions on neighborhoods notorious for the drug trade.
Mayor Lightfoot went into detail with regard to the drug trade and the violence that surrounds said exploits:
“What these drug enterprises are doing is this. These spots, they can earn $30,000 to $50,000 a day. They’re extraordinarily lucrative, which is why they’re willing to fight to the death to keep those spots.”
When you take into consideration a distracted police force in conjunction with high-profile hubs for the drug trade, it’s understandable why violence may increase in certain areas.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot. #Chicago’s street gang wars are slaughtering children. put the memes away and lead. My column @chicagotribune @chicagosmayor #twill https://t.co/3MGUXphu1G
— John Kass (@John_Kass) July 2, 2020
Police Superintendent David Brown noted that recent attempts at thwarting the criminal drug trade haven’t been fruitful, but the police force is invigored to continue their efforts.
John Catanzara, who serves as the local Fraternal Order of Police’s president, cited that one aspect contributing to a decline in arrests is that police are in fear of losing their jobs for simply making proper arrests:
“When the top official in this city is blaming the police for everything that’s wrong, to hide their inefficiencies and inadequacies, it definitely makes people stop and wonder, ‘what am I doing? Am I going home? Am I going to have a job tomorrow? Am I going to be in jail next week?’”
Mayor Lightfoot proclaims that the union is exaggerating with regard to their cited concerns of officers being scared to perform their normal duties:
“You’re going to hear a lot of noise from the FOP. That’s part of the game. But I’m focused on making sure that we get wins at the bargaining table for the residents of this city.”
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