Tracking trouble: Juveniles on electronic monitoring systems

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - One of the two teens accused in a crime spree that stretched into two counties last week was wearing a "home detention" ankle monitor at the time.  I-Team 8 discovered those monitors are far from foolproof, and juveniles may be exploiting some loopholes in the system.

Formal charges were filed Tuesday in adult court against Sirquain Burr, 17, including two counts of murder, a felony robbery count and a count for carrying a handgun without a license. Charges have not been filed yet against the other suspect, a 15-year-old juvenile, who remains in the Marion County juvenile detention center.

Court records show both teens have been placed on home detention before, and the 15-year-old was wearing an ankle monitor last week. But, I-Team 8 discovered it didn’t alert probation officers that he was gone.

THE CRIME SPREE

IMPD investigators believe the teens are responsible for a number of crimes committed on Tuesday and Wednesday, including a homicide on the south side Wednesday morning and the shooting of a man walking his dog that preceded a police chase.

Burr is also already facing charges of robbery, attempted robbery and auto theft that from a Feb. 11 incident.

He is scheduled to appear in court for the first time Wednesday. The 15-year-old is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday, when charges against him are expected to be announced.

Both suspects have extensive juvenile criminal pasts and have worn ankle monitors before.

Court records show Burr was previously sentenced to wear a home detention monitor for 30 days. The 15-year-old was sentenced to wear a home detention monitor for 30 days on Jan. 10, prior to a hearing on charges that he had robbed an 85-year-old woman. That 30-day sentence was extended for another 30 days following the hearing on Feb. 7.

According to Marion County Juvenile Court Judge Marilyn Moores, between 85 and 90 juveniles are on home detention monitoring at any given time.

She calls the system extremely successful.

“It is effective. The failure to appear rate is 1.93 percent. That's pretty good. I'm unaware of anything other than jail that's 100 percent. Nothing's foolproof,” she said.

A SHOCK TO OUR FAMILY

After his son’s first appearance in juvenile court last Friday, James Edwards, Sr. called Wednesday’s events "a horrible tragedy."

“It was a shock to our family,” Edwards said. “We're very sorry that this happened. If there was any way we could turn the book back, we would.”

But, Edwards also said his son, the 15-year-old, should have been far away from it all.

"He knew he was on house arrest, on ankle monitor. He knew he had to go to school. Instead of him coming back home when he missed the bus, he didn't. He rode with this fellow in the car,” Edwards said.

But, I-Team 8 found the boy’s ankle monitor never alerted probation officers that he was gone.

Moores said that’s because it’s not designed to.

“Electronic monitoring tells you when they are at home and if they are not,” Moores said. “And, if they have a reason to be out of the home that is a valid reason like work or school, then they have to give the time frames that they'll be out of monitoring range, and then we don't get an alarm.”

“Anybody, adult or juvenile, gets to leave to go to work or school,” said IU Robert H. McKinney School of Law Professor Novella Nedeff.

Nedeff, a former major felony public defender in Marion County, who also works as a criminal defense attorney says the program is designed to include some “leeway.”

“They would have some leave time on school days,” she said. “And, that makes it a challenge. I know from some of my adult clients that community corrections will call their work to make sure they're really there. But, of course, the manpower to check somebody every day is finite.”

"This is a case where the kid should have been in school. And, he wasn't in school. And, when we found out he wasn't in school, we went looking for him,” Moores said.

But, by the time probation officers knocked on the teen’s door, he had already been in handcuffs for hours.

It's a familiar story to Brenda Hill.

Her stepson Curtis, also a juvenile, wore an ankle monitor too.

“Oh, yeah, it worked,” she said. “It makes a loud beeping sound. If he leaves, it goes off. And, they can monitor it. No one knocked on the door, but we got a couple phone calls.”

But, I-Team 8 found the devices aren’t monitored all the time.

TRACKING TROUBLE

Police reports filed over the last six months alone detail more than a dozen teens on home detention found outside their homes during the middle of the day, on days when they should have been school.

But, Moores says, in many of those cases, the ankle monitors have not sounded an alarm.

Asked if that meant the teens were out of the system’s eye during those hours, Moores nodded.

“Just like an adult at work,” she said. “They sure are.”

But, I-Team 8 discovered the system’s limitations go beyond that.

Marion County uses a private company based in Colorado to monitor adult