Experts are questioning the effectiveness of GPS ankle bracelets often used to monitor sex offenders in the United States after a 13 year old girl was murdered.
Alycia Nipp was headed home from a Walmart in Vancouver, Washington when she decided to cut across a field often used as a crash pad by the homeless. While crossing the field she ran into 30 year old Darrin Sanford, who attempted to rape Nipp and then repeatedly stabbed and beat her to death.
Sanford was quickly caught and confessed. His confession was verified by his GPS bracelet which put him at the scene of the murder. However, the repeat sex offender was tracked passively, meaning that his whereabouts weren’t monitored in real-time. Whether or not they were, it wouldn’t have been possible to know he was commiting a murder.
Some experts say that GPS monitoring causes a false sense of security among the public, and it doesn’t change the behavior or dull the deviant urges of sex offenders.
Is GPS monitoring effective? Or is it useless?
