Joseph Smith, 37, who has been arrested more than a dozen times in Florida since 1993, was charged with kidnapping and murdering 11-year-old Carlie Brucia in Sarasota, Fla. last month. But even though Smith was on probation for cocaine possession, law enforcement had no record of his whereabouts.

Bill Reach, the director of information services at Florida's Citrus County Sheriff's Office, believes that Brucia's case might have been solved earlier, or even prevented, if law enforcement had been able to attach Smith to a new tracking device before releasing him from prison.

"He would have known that we were recording all of his movements and the crime might have been prevented," Reach said. "Even if Smith had still committed the crime, we would have been able to locate him, and the body, a lot sooner than we did."

The new tracking system, Veritracks, is the product of a five-year partnership between the Florida Department of Corrections (DOC), local law enforcement agencies and General Dynamics, which designed Veritracks specifically to assist law enforcement in connecting repeat offenders with crime incidents.

Veritracks uses global positioning technology (GPS) to track offenders released from jails and prisons and cross-references their locations to those of reported crime incidents, provided by local law enforcement. Tracked offenders wear ankle bracelets that send signals to a satellite-tracking device every minute.

Though the concept of GPS tracking is not new, Veritracks will be the first device that correlates offenders' locations with recorded crime scenes.

Two Bills Up for Veritracks

In light of events like Brucia's abduction, Florida lawmakers are deciding whether it is time to implement Veritracks on a statewide level.

Two weeks ago, law enforcement officials gathered in Tallahassee to support Senator Mike Haridopolos, who filed a bill that will require the Florida DOC to use the Veritracks system to monitor "certain sex offenders whose crime is committed on or after specified date." The bill, which will be decided on by the end of May, calls for $7,800,000 to get the system started.

"I think they were all very interested," said Pinellas County Sheriff Everett Rice, who along with a dozen other local officials spoke in favor of the bill in front of the Criminal Justice Subcommittee and others. "[House speaker] Johnnie Byrd himself is leading a fight for it."

At the end of their presentation, Byrd told law enforcement officials, "I'm sold on the concept, now we just need to take it forward the rest of the way."

A sister bill in the House of Representatives was also filed by Representative Carey Baker and co-sponsored by Representative Michael Bilirakis in late February. It was officially introduced to the House last Tuesday.

General Dynamics lobbyist Tim Moore said that, ideally, the bill will be expanded to include more than just sex offenders and predators, pointing out that Smith was not on probation for a sexual offense but for a drug conviction.

"A thousand sexual predators and probationers being tracked is a starting point, but the bill is a work in progress and the professionals, the Florida Department of Corrections, should be the ones to identify the worst of the worst," Moore said. "I think you might see this bill expand as it moves on to include others out there that might in fact be a bigger threat than some sexual predators and offenders might be."

If the bill is approved, Rice said he believes that those put on the Veritracks system will include all offenders awaiting pretrial, on probation, in jail work-release programs, on parole and on early release. He noted that at the time Smith was charged for abduction and murder, there were more than 50,000 offenders on probation in Florida, whose records were as bad as, or worse than, his.

"I'm talking about more than 180,000 offenders here in all," he said. "Now, I'm not saying they should all be tracked, but a good percentage of them should be."

While speaking to the Criminal Justice Subcommittee, law enforcement officials agreed that their immediate goal should be to begin tracking 10,600 state probationers and sexual predators, which would cost an estimated $35 million.

Veritracks on the Local Level

Before implementing the system statewide, a few local law enforcement agencies volunteered to test-drive Veritracks, which was referred to as CrimeTrax during its piloting stage. Four counties-Pinellas, Citrus, Seminole and Leon-began using the tracking devices on the "worst of the worst" released from local jails and prisons. After dramatically decreasing their recidivism rates, the counties were later joined by Miami-Dade, Hillsborough, Lake County and Santa Rosa.

The Florida DOC already tracks approximately 6,000 offenders with the GPS system.

In Citrus County, 80 released offenders were tracked for eight months using Veritracks. According to Reach, out of those 80, only one committed a crime. Usually, Reach said, the recidivism rate of a group of offenders is 30 percent at the minimum but closer to 70 percent, "depending on whose numbers you use."

Similarly, Pinellas County has been using Veritracks for a year and a half and has seen a significant drop in recidivism rates, from 40 to 50 percent down to less than 14 percent.

Rice said, "It gives offenders three choices: one, they can go along with the tracking system and not commit any crimes, two, they can decide against the system and go back to jail, or they can commit a crime and get caught."

A Two-Prong Solution

While Veritracks has great promise for reducing recidivism rates, it also increases the chances of convicting a repeat offender, said Greg Frost, the Executive Services Director for the Tallahassee Police Department. If an offender's tracking device sends signals at or near the scene of a crime, Frost said, "We know we'll either have a good suspect or a good witness."

Veritracks can also exonerate an accused offender if his or her tracking device proves that the tracked individual was not near the scene of the crime, Rice said.

Ultimately, officials hope that the efficacy of the Veritracks system will prevent offenders from committing new crimes in the first place.

"We're looking to create that moment of doubt within an offender's mind, with the intent to stop him or her from committing a new crime," Frost said.

Apparently, the moment of doubt has been created for offenders within counties who piloted Veritracks. According to Frost, data from the last few months has indicated a three to five percent recidivism rate in counties that claimed around 30 percent recidivism rates before implementing the new system.

However, Frost stressed that there is no way of knowing whether or not the rates will remain as low as they are now. Since Florida will be the first state in the country to use such a system statewide, Frost said they're "pretty much writing the book as they go."

"There is going to have to be very robust analysis and evaluation done as this progresses," he said.

A Choice for Offenders and Visibility for Law Enforcement

Beyond being an effective tool for law enforcement agencies, ex-offenders can also benefit from the system because it can help them avoid incarceration by allowing law enforcement to track them outside of jails and prisons.

As a matter of fact, civil liberties groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, have publicly declared their support for Veritracks.

"Many groups have come out to say that the system is a good thing because it allows offenders to be in an environment where they can work and be with their families, while at the same time allowing the criminal justice system to maintain a level of monitoring that will hold them accountable," Frost said.

Also, Reach said that without the system, local law enforcement agencies have no way of monitoring the whereabouts of offenders. Likewise, state parole and probation officers, who monitor offenders, do not have a direct source of local crime data. The system bridges those gaps.

"Veritracks means there will be so many more thousands of eyes watching these people," Reach said.

A Nation Just Catching On

While law enforcement may soon be keeping a closer eye on offenders in Florida, it is not the only state updating its tracking system in the near future. Amanda Wettstein, the east coast regional director for Veritracks, said the company is already in final negotiations with other states.

According to Wettstein, Tennessee, Maryland, New York and Arizona have already filed bills to update their tracking systems to target sex offenders, while Maine and Massachusetts are discussing plans with General Dynamics to improve their sex offender registries. She also said a pilot project using the system is underway with the Georgia Sheriffs' Association.

"We're beyond just selling GPS tracking devices," Wettstein said. "We want to build a more comprehensive, national tracking program."

Resources:

For more information about Veritracks, visit: www.veritracks.com

For more information about the Florida Department of Corrections, visit: www.dc.state.fl.us