Associated Press
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Jerry Brown has vetoed a bill targeting sex offenders who willfully remove their location-tracking devices.
Under the bill sponsored by Sen. Patricia Bates, R-Laguna Niguel, sex offenders would face up to three years in state prison for cutting off their GPS tracking devices.
Bates backed the bill after two paroled sex offenders in Orange County was charged with killing four women. The men had a history of removing their GPS ankle bracelets.
Brown vetoed the bill, along with eight others, that he said would only criminalize conduct that is already outlawed.
In a veto message issued Saturday, Brown indicated California’s criminal code, with more than 5,000 laws on the books, already has become too complex without adding more laws that he says would provide little benefit to the public.