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House Republicans’ GPS
monitoring proposal scaled down,
but gets ‘green light’
'We must
take more meaningful steps forward,' say Republican leaders
Washington
House Republicans were surprised today when the governor invited the
media to her office to announce that four sex offenders out of almost
20,000 will be monitored with a global positioning system (GPS) device.
There are currently 1,300 sex offenders who have failed to register in
the state, prompting Republican state representatives to question why
only four will receive special attention.
“I’m pleased the GPS legislation we proposed weeks ago to the governor
resonated with her, but this is just one very, very, very small step. We
must keep moving forward with other concrete solutions that better
protect children,” said
Rep. Skip Priest,
R-Federal Way. “There are thirteen hundred sex offenders who have failed
to register, breaking the law, and another fifteen hundred level three
sex offenders who require close monitoring. We think these offenders
warrant GPS tracking and other forms of close supervision, too.”
Priest added that GPS alone will not solve the concerns the public has
about their safety. That’s why House Republicans crafted a comprehensive
eight-point plan that has elements that work together to ensure greater
public safety. As a package they hold sex offenders accountable for
their whereabouts and activities.
House Republicans drafted eight bills for the Legislature to consider
during a special session, which were also sent to the governor and her
sex offender task force last month. These measures would:
House Republicans also
contend a one-day special session to deal with these pressing public
safety issues and appropriations is cost-effective to taxpayers,
particularly since legislators are already in Olympia on business until
Friday. The governor today said the idea was off the table, primarily
due to the fact the task force’s work is not officially done. House
Republicans do not think the task force’s timeline should prevent good
ideas from moving forward immediately.
“The regular 60-day legislative session has so many distractions that
these critical public safety measures could either fall through the
cracks or de delayed. It’s what we’ve seen in past legislative sessions
– and the public deserves better,” said Priest. “A special session would
allow us to tackle just these important safety issues now and leave the
2008 session open for other vital other issues.”
“These proposals are not new,” said
Rep. Kirk Pearson, lead Republican on the House Public Safety
and Emergency Preparedness Committee. “We’ve introduced similar measures
over the past several years. We’ve studied the issues, debated them in
committee and task force groups – and it’s time to act. Each year we
wait, the more felons we have roaming our neighborhoods without any
measure of accountability. We’re also shorting our law enforcement and
community corrections officers by not addressing their caseloads, which
is making a dangerous situation worse.”
Pearson said that without structural changes in the staffing and
caseloads at the Department of Corrections, the system will fail.
“Along with our common-sense proposals to strengthen our public safety
laws, we have to repair our broken corrections system – and that means
more tools and more staffing. We can start by taking action this week.
We can do more than monitor four sex offenders if we take immediate
action in the next two days. The public needs to know we’re serious, and
the governor’s announcement today is not going to make the public feel
any safer.”
House Republicans sent a letter to the governor in August requesting a
special session to update sex offender laws in an effort to better track
sex offenders. Today’s news conference was the only response House
Republicans received from their request. No House Republicans were
invited to participate in the news conference despite the fact they
authored GPS monitoring legislation and seven other public safety bills.
# # #
Editor’s Note:
Click to read the letter outlining House Republican proposals sent to the
governor and the Sex Offender Task Force Sept. 6. Copies of
the bills that correspond to the proposals are found in the links above.
# # #
For more information, contact:
Bobbi Cussins, Public Information Officer: (360) 786-7252
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