CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Police in Charlotte say electronic monitors helped them solve almost 100 crimes in 2012.
The program, which now has about 400 people wearing electronic monitors while they are waiting for trial on charges from robbery to assault and breaking and entering, has been around for six years, and now police say it may just be one of the best crime fighting tools they have.
Just ask Robert Deblasi. When someone broke into his home in Cambridge Commons the day after Thanksgiving, police may not have had any good leads if it weren't for the fact that one of the suspects was wearing an electronic monitor.
Officers arrested Saveh Ghazal, 24, four days later after they saw that the electronic monitor he was wearing put him at Deblasi's home at the time of the break-in and at the pawn shop where they found Deblasi's stolen guitar.
It was one of 92 cases that police solved using electronic monitors -- many of them cases that might not have leads without the monitors.
"This is a great lead for detectives because oftentimes, when a house gets broken into, they have nowhere to look. But if they were wearing a monitor, we get a lead right away," said Sgt. Dave Scheppegrel, who oversees the program.
Police have already had success tracking monitors in 2013. They were able to arrest two suspects in the first homicide of the year, at Farm Pond and Albemarle roads, largely because of electronic monitors.
"Our suspects were on electronic monitoring, one of the witnesses was on electronic monitoring, so we were able to locate them fairly quickly," said Capt. Chuck Henson.
Henson said he would like to see more monitors handed out to suspects while they are out of jail.
About two percent of the people wearing electronic monitors have cut them off.
WSOC
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