SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – Sex offenders who willfully remove their location-tracking devices would face up to three years in state prison under a bill sent to Gov. Jerry Brown.
SB722 would apply to sex offenders convicted of rape, spousal rape and continuous sexual abuse of a child.
Republican Sen. Patricia Bates of Laguna Niguel says if her bill was already law, it might have thwarted two paroled Orange County sex offenders now charged with killing four women. The men had a history of removing their GPS tracking devices.
Her district includes part of Orange County.
Senators unanimously approved the measure Thursday.
Bates cited state Board of Parole Hearings data that parolee GPS violations increased five-fold after a 2011 law began sending lower-level felons and parole violators to local jails instead of state prisons.