GPS urged vs. domestic violence

The state should use global positioning systems to track the movements of as many as 3,000 residents who are charged criminally with domestic violence or have a history of violating restraining orders, Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey said yesterday.

Under the current system, Healey said, civil restraining orders do little to protect domestic violence victims from a determined abuser.

The idea is contained in a bill that Healey, a probable candidate for governor, has filed. She talked about the legislation yesterday at an informational hearing held by the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security, which is considering measures for an omnibus antidomestic violence package.

The bill, Healey said, would create a criminal charge of violating a civil restraining order and allow for the use of the GPS monitoring bracelet as a penalty. It would pave the way for a program similar to the one used to track about 180 of the state's Level 3 sex offenders.

The program, which costs about $10 per person per day, allows state officials to monitor movements using a bracelet that can be tracked by satellite.

While the bracelets are used mainly to make sure that sex offenders, defendants on bail, and parolees are where they are supposed to be, recent technological advances have allowed officials to set up so-called exclusion zones, places where the wearer is not allowed to go. Zones could be established around a domestic violence victim's home and workplace or a child's school, Healey said.

The lieutenant governor said about 3,000 restraining order violators would be eligible.