The Chicago Tribune
EVANSVILLE, Ind. — When convicted felon Richard W. Robb Jr. violated probation by visiting a friend’s home and even a liquor store, his every move was tracked in 20-second intervals.
A Global Positioning System, or GPS, device that Robb, 25, wore around his ankle transmitted his movements, which were stored electronically and reviewed in court by Vanderburgh Circuit Court Magistrate David Kiely.
ABK Tracking of Evansville began offering GPS services this year, and court officials are embracing the opportunity to ease jail overcrowding and offer non-violent criminals a way to be productive members of the community.
“Overall, I think the defense attorneys and the prosecutors both agree this is a good alternative in the appropriate case,” Kiely said.
Kiely estimated he has ordered GPS tracking in at least 20 cases so far.
“It’s a good alternative to pretrial incarceration,” he told the Evansville Courier & Press. “We can keep track of them but don’t have to house them in the jail, and they are paying the expense for it instead of the taxpayers.”
In Robb’s case, Kiely decided to send him to the Department of Correction for the duration of his sentence on a conviction for operating a vehicle after being declared a habitual traffic offender.
Danny Koester, owner of ABK Tracking, said 36 people have been assigned to GPS tracking by the courts so far this year. Of those, seven already have completed their GPS programs. Three, including Robb, committed violations that resulted in their removal from the program.
“We think it will be a huge plus to be able to monitor people who need that extra level of monitoring, but probably don’t need to be sitting in a cell, costing quite a bit of money,” said Vanderburgh County Sheriff Eric Williams.
Koester recently met with Williams, local judges, Evansville Police Chief Brad Hill, prosecutor Stan Levco and 911 dispatchers to discuss protocol for law-enforcement response to violations of the GPS system.
Williams said the meeting led to the determination that in most cases, violations will be reported to a judge and noted on the participant’s court record.
“The question we wanted to answer was when to respond, so we needed to determine when the violation is substantial enough to require immediate reaction from law enforcement or otherwise just refer the violation to the court,” Williams said.
That was how Robb ended up back in front of Kiely on a recent afternoon.
After ABK Tracking notified Kiely’s court of the violations, defense attorney John Brinson filed a motion challenging the allegations.
Kiely convened a hearing the next day, and Koester and his staff brought in computers and other equipment that had recorded Robb’s moves.
The recording showed Robb visiting a discount store, a liquor store and his friend’s home, none of which was permitted under the terms of his probation.
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