8% of people on electronic monitoring in Cook County are AWOL, chief judge's report shows
One in 12 accused criminals in Cook County's electronic monitoring program are currently AWOL, according to a new report from the county's chief judge.
The report from Chief Judge Charles Beach's office says there are 3,048 people in Cook County who are on electronic monitoring while they face criminal charges, and 8% of them are unaccounted for, either because they've missed curfew for three or more hours, the battery on their monitoring bracelet – which they are required to charge themselves – has died, or has otherwise lost connectivity.
This matters because warrants can be issued for their arrest for failing to comply with the terms of their electronic monitoring.
The man accused killing Chicago police officer John Bartholomew was among those considered AWOL from electronic monitoring when he allegedly robbed a dollar store last month before he was arrested and was taken to Swedish Hospital for a medical scan, where he allegedly shot Bartholomew and his partner.
Earlier this year, Beach told CBS News Chicago about changes that have been made to electronic monitoring in Cook County since his office took over responsibility for the program from the Cook County Sheriff's Office.
Now, if someone on electronic monitoring is somewhere they're not supposed to be for three hours or longer, that will trigger a "major violation." Previously, the threshold for a major violation was 48 hours.
Those alerts will then go before judge handling that violator's case on a 24/7 basis, whereas before that turnaround time was only happening on weekdays.
If a judge issues an arrest warrant in response to a major violation, the Cook County Sheriff's Office has agreed to expedite service of the warrant, and the Cook County Circuit Court Clerk's Office has agreed to place that case on the judge's court call within 24 hours.
"Ultimately, that is what we're doing right now, is making things work faster or bringing people back to court quicker. We're evaluating things quicker," Beach said.
That doesn't always work, though, for people who are AWOL, like Alphanso Talley, who was arrested without his monitoring bracelet before he allegedly shot and killed Officer Bartholomew.
"The reality is is that the electronic monitoring system will tell us if the person is wearing the band, where they're at every minute of the day, every minute. So it's a fair way of keeping track on someone until they cut the band, remove the band, mess with the band, and then you can't," Beach said in February.
Beach has promised to update the data in the report on the county's electronic monitoring system, but when CBS News Chicago tried to get to the bottom of who has gone AWOL, his office said they'd get back to us shortly. That was around 10:50 a.m., but his office has not provided answers as of 5 p.m.
