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GPS monitors placed on paroled gang members in Pasadena area

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has begun fitting paroled gang members with GPS monitors to better keep track of criminals considered to be among the worst of the worst.

By the end of the year, about 260 paroled gang members are expected to be placed on GPS monitoring in Los Angeles County, officials said.

"We're trying to attempt to deter parolees from being involved in future gang activities," said Barnard Villar, unit supervisor of the Pasadena parole office.

"It also serves to track the activities of those who fail to abide by their conditions or stay away from other gang members."

The GPS tracking devices on the first group of gang members in the Pasadena area were activated May 11, Villar said.

Seventeen known gang members are now being monitored in the Pasadena area, with three more expected by next week, parole unit supervisor Barnard Villar of the Pasadena area office said.

To be placed on GPS monitoring, parolees must be officially recognized as gang members both in prison and on the streets, Villar said. Both new parolees and people paroled in the past may be fitted with the devices.

The devices may be used to make sure paroled gang members don't congregate with each other, he said, or violate their parole by entering a restricted area, such as a gang injunction zone.

Additionally, Villar said, the stored information from the GPS devices can be used in an

investigation if a monitored parolee is suspected of a crime or parole violation.

Parole officials contract with an outside company to monitor the GPS trackers and send out alerts when a violation is observed, Villar said. Parole agents also have real-time access to the information provided by the GPS bracelets, which track the exact location of the wearers via satellite 24 hours a day.

California parole officials have been placing high-risk gang member parolees on GPS monitoring for several years, officials said, but legislation signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in October expanded the program to place 1,000 gang member parolees on GPS monitoring statewide.

The legislation was the same bill that mandated more than 20,000 parolees considered to be low-risk be released with minimal parole supervision, or "non-revocable parole."

While about 160 paroled gang members were being monitored by GPS prior to the new legislation, officials plan to increase that number to 1,000 by the end of the year, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation District Administrator Maria Franco said.

Local parole offices have been implementing the additional GPS devices as staff training allows since the law took effect Jan. 25, Franco added.

While Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich has expressed differences of opinion with state parole officials in the past, the gang member GPS monitoring program is a program the supervisor supports, said his spokesman, Tony Bell.

"While the supervisor has had issues with the state's non-revocable parole, this program has merit," he said.

GPS tracking devices are being used as an additional means of oversight for parolees, Franco said. They are not being used to shorten the sentences of any inmates.

Antonovich's justice deputy, Anna Pembedjian, said the increased use of GPS to track high-risk gang members benefits public safety.

"Certainly we would rather them be on GPS than not," she said. "It enhances community safety because it can hold these parolees more accountable to the terms of parole."

Parole officials have been running a pilot program out of offices in Alameda and Huntington Park for the past two years with positive results, Franco said.

In addition to using the system to provide law enforcement officials with valuable information for their investigations, she said, "We were able to use it to prevent felonies from occurring."

brian.day@sgvn.com

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