Judiciary subcommittee to study GPS monitoring, law-enforcement access to Sentinel notifications

At a remote meeting of a Judiciary subcommittee, co-chair Alaric Fox and members agreed to prioritize review of GPS monitoring and how law enforcement communicates with the Sentinel victim-notification system, citing incidents in which victims received confusing alerts and officers could not quickly confirm details.

The discussion centered on whether law enforcement should have more immediate, verified access to Sentinel information — including a proposed dedicated law-enforcement line similar to the Department of Children and Families (DCF) law-enforcement referral line — and on clarifying permissible uses of GPS location data. Co-chair Karen Folio Conner framed the issue: "We had ... a healthy discussion about GPS," noting the system's statewide rollout and examples where victims received battery or alert notifications and later changed their assessment of their safety.

The subcommittee described a case in which a victim…