Never a 'Con' when you need one - One in four GPS devices on criminals in L.A. County were faulty

Why should we expect the government to protect us when they don't want us to protect ourselves? m/r

One in four GPS devices on criminals in L.A. County were faulty - latimes.com

Probation department audit says violent felons released in L.A. County could roam undetected for days and sometimes weeks.

By Paige St. John

December 27, 2013, 5:06 p.m.

One in every four GPS devices used to track serious criminals released in Los Angeles County has proved to be faulty, according to a probation department audit — allowing violent felons to roam undetected for days or, in some cases, weeks.

The problems included batteries that wouldn't hold a charge and defective electronics that generated excessive false alarms. One felon, county officials said, had to have his GPS monitor replaced 11 times over a year; for five days during the 45-day audit period, his whereabouts were unknown.

"If you have faulty technology, that is a recipe for disaster," said Reaver Bingham, deputy chief of the probation department.

The findings come as nearly every California county is moving forward with some form of electronic monitoring to contend with tens of thousands of state inmates being released to their supervision, an offshoot of the effort to reduce prison overcrowding.

http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-ff-gps-audit-20131228,0,7424883.story#ixzz2onnCSRbu