GPS tracking

Well, once again on the Florida front:

Spurred by the killing of a 9-year-old girl, Gov. Jeb Bush on Monday signed a law imposing tougher penalties on child molesters and requiring many of those released from prison to wear satellite tracking devices for the rest of their lives.

GPS devices worn around the ankles, so that the government can track them, even after they've completed their prison sentence. I'm all about being tough on crime, and I have no doubt that the Fla state legislature had the state's best intentions in mind. The law passed unanimously in both the House and Senate, and apparently there is some precedence for this type of punishment:

Lots of other states have minimum mandatory sentences for sex crimes against children. A number of states already require some form of lifetime supervision of sex offenders, including GPS tracking, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

However, Florida's new law may be the first requirement of lifetime GPS monitoring for an entire group of people who commit a certain crime, the NCSL said.

Florida's new law could also open the door to the death penalty for more killers, because it allows a defendant's status as a sexual predator to be considered as an aggravating factor during sentencing for a murder.

Registering sex offenders seems like a fair thing to do. I know that I would want to know if there was a registered offender living in my neighborhood, especially if I was a parent. Forcing GPS tracking on individuals, however, seems like a step that is going to open up some dangerous doors.

I have to come up with some more coherent thoughts on the larger issues around this, but 1984 immediately springs to mind...citizens have the right to privacy, and as far as I know, rehabilitated criminals are, in most states, returned their citizenship (not really sure how it is in Texas...Scott?) GPS tracking devices on these (rehabilitated) citizens, in my opinion, amounts to a violation of their privacy.

This type of law scares me, not really for what it is, but for what it could become.