How Georgia classifies sex offenders as predators came under sharp scrutiny during Park’s case, echoing legal challenges to ankle monitors that have occurred in several other states.

Since 2006, Georgia’s Sexual Offender Registration Review Board has assumed the task of classifying offenders according to one of three risk levels based on reams of court records, behavioral reports and clinical assessments. Lower-risk offenders, which make up 65% of all classified offenders, tend to lack a criminal history, despite facing convictions for serious crimes such as child molestation and rape. Higher-risk predators often have multiple convictions or accusations while showing a penchant for violence or preying on children.

The goal is to identify which sex offenders have the highest risk for committing additional sex crimes since resources to track dangerous predators are tight and “not all sex offenders are the same,” said Tracy Alvord, the review board’s executive director.

“We’re concerned about the people who are going to prey on our children,” Alvord said in a recent interview. “That’s what we’re looking for. We take this very seriously.”

Only predators, representing the third highest risk level, had to wear ankle monitors regardless of when their sentences ended, including during and after their probation. Park challenged that system.

Officially labeled a predator in 2011, Park faced the prospect of wearing an ankle monitor for the rest of his life after wrapping up his prison stint and completing his full sentence on a child molestation charge in 2015. The 24/7 tracker saddled him with a kind of unreasonable search in violation of his constitutional privacy rights, Park said. Pledging that he has “no inclination to commit any sex offenses,” Park called the ankle monitor “a fishing expedition” that served no purpose except to harass him.

“That’s police officers in search of a crime without cause for it,” said Park, a retired state government worker who is now 69, in a recent interview.

The state Supreme Court agreed. Without probable cause for a specific crime, local police could not constantly track a person without running afoul of the U.S. Constitution’s 4th Amendment, the justices said.

Courts in other states, such as Missouri and New Jersey, have made similar rulings on ankle monitors for predators in recent years, sparking frustration from many sex-crime survivors who fear less tracking could allow their attackers to target others.

Chrissie Depre was 18 years old and living in New Jersey in 2000 when a man broke into her apartment and sexually assaulted her. She got a call a couple of years ago that he was out of prison. Since she’s moved away, Depre feels less concerned for her safety than the chance that someone else might fall prey to her attacker. An ankle monitor could help keep that situation from happening, she said.

“I feel like it would hold them accountable,” Depre said in a recent interview.

“Predators and people that commit these assaults don’t think the way we do, so you never really know. But I do think it would be an extra form of protection for people and the public.”

• Ankle monitors gone for hundreds of sex predators in Georgia
• Part IV: ‘Peace of mind’ for sex predators
• Part V: Long road for survivors
• Part II: Lawmakers slow to act
• Part I: Celebration in the sheriff’s office

What else would you like to know about sex-related crimes and the judicial system in Georgia? Share your thoughts/tips by emailing [email protected].

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Header image: Georgia’s Sexual Offender Registration Review Board is tasked with assigning official risk levels to thousands of sex predators in the state. (Credit: Beau Evans for State Affairs)