Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

By Michael P. McKinney
Journal Staff Writer

PAWTUCKET, R.I. -- The police and officialsTuesday morning unveiled a prototype of a global-positioning system that could be used to track sex offenders, missing persons who have Alzheimer's disease, and alert domestic-violence victims when their abusers are in the vicinity.

U.S. Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy attended the news conference at Pawtucket Police headquarters to announce $200,000 in federal money for work on the system. Kennedy said the company that is working on the Web application is Lincoln-based Lighthouse Criminal Justice Integration Systems Group. Pawtucket officials including Mayor James Doyle said the city had tested the system and found it effective.

Jeffrey Angus, the program manager executive technology consultant at Lighthouse, said that for tracking sex offenders, the system can give police new information minute-by-minute. However, when officials tried to provide a demonstration on a large screen at police headquarters, the system didn't work because of technical problems. Officials said the Municipal Court room at headquarters, where they were attempting the demonstration, was not properly wired.

Jonathan J. Houston, the executive director of Justice Assistance, in Cranston, said that some legislation would need to be amended in order to use the technology to track sex offenders.

 Tags  Cranston RI Pawtucket RI

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