Pennsylvania Megan's Law Change To Require GPS Monitoring Of Sex Offenders

July 23, 2008 10:53 p.m. EST

Pittsburgh, PA (AHN) - Pennsylvania's state auditor and lawmakers are proposing changes in the state's Megan's Law to require all registered sex offenders wear global positioning system (GPS) ankle bracelets for a specified period.

State Auditor General Jack Wagner said knowing the location of selected sex offenders through GPS anklets has become necessary with 923 of Pennsylvania's 10,000 sex offenders nowhere to be found.

Under Megan's Law, sex offenders must register their names and addresses on a publicly accessible Web site and inform police if they are moving. However, authorities easily lost touch of those who fail to do so.

The cost of GPS monitoring is lower than keeping a sex offender detained, but the wearer can be made to shoulder the cost of using the device, Wagner said, according to Pennlive.com.

Meanwhile, State Sens. Jane Orie, R-McCandless, and John C. Rafferty, R-Montgomery, are co-sponsoring a bill to make GPS monitoring mandatory for violators of Megan's Law, repeat sex offenders, and sexually violent predators whose victims are children.

Only 14 counties in the state use GPS to track sex offenders with others using radio frequency identification tags for monitoring.