Eye In The Sky On Sex Offenders

GPS, Device Worn By Them Help Police Track Their Whereabouts

(CBS)  Authorities knew Thomas Koucky was a sex offender: He'd already admitted to molesting 300 boys over the last decade. And they knew he'd skipped bail. But it was only luck that led to his recent capture in Guatemala, and police across the country are now concluding they need a lot more than luck to keep track of this type of criminal.

"The sex offenders keep me up at night," says Paul Quander of the Washington, D.C. Court Services And Offender Supervision Agency. "And they strike fear in the heart of the community.

But, says CBS News Correspondent Jim Stewart, D.C. officials think they've found the answer.

Using global positioning satellites, they can now track sexual predators' every move, right down to the square foot. Since the program began last year, some 60 offenders have been kept under close watch.

One man, convicted of two rapes, out on parole after 22 years and now on the tracking beam told Stewart, "This was something to get my attention. ...This device, it works."

Stewart explains that an ankle bracelet communicates to a pager-like device worn on the waist. It has the offender's name on it, the date, and the exact time down to the second. The offender's movements are beamed from the box to a satellite, and then to computers monitored by parole officers like Paul Brannan in D.C.

"It is essentially psychological warfare. They know they're being tracked and the fear of us finding out about what they're doing is, I think, having a deterring effect."

The predators, notes Stewart, are forbidden from loitering around schoolyards, churches, or homes of previous victims. They're given curfews. If they're somewhere they're not supposed to be, parole officers learn about it when they log onto their computers the next day.

"This is what we're interested in," says Brannan. "What happens after work? Is he going home? Is he going somewhere else? We want to see if he stops near a school."

If he does, says Stewart, the parole officers have proof positive to take to a judge and have the offender put back in jail.

"Often times offenders think they an find the gray area," observes Quander. "This allows us to make things black and white."

Stewart says police use it on problem cases. Do well, and the offender goes back on regular probation.

All adding up, Stewart adds, to a high-tech reminder that the long arm of the law has just gotten longer.