California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has ordered the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to alert the public whenever paroled sex offenders remove their personal electronic tracking devices and try to flee supervision.

As of July 1, there were 7,167 parolees on GPS monitoring, according to Department of Corrections officials. Of those, 6,623 are paroled sex offenders, while the remaining 544 are gang members.

20 to 60 times a month a parolee on GPS monitoring will manage to remove the device. Removing the device is “not easy,” and requires “some effort,” the Department said.
The need for more extensive public notification came about after recent incidents involving sex offenders removing their tracking bracelets, the governor’s office said.
Corrections officials already alert local law enforcement authorities whenever parolees try to slip away, the governor’s office said. An automated Web-based system provides law enforcement with photos and information about the parolees.

Prisons chief said his agency would immediately begin developing a system to notify the media and public when a sex offender tries to escape.

There are approximately 86,000 registered sex offenders in California and only the most dangerous are subject to electronic monitoring. You can search the national database on the FBI website http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/cac/registry.htm