Some sex offenders on probation are considered so dangerous that a court has ordered their movements to be monitored via a GPS tracking system. Yet, Nassau County's Probation Department routinely monitors their movements only five days a week until 4:45 p.m., rather than on a 24-hour, real-time basis, according to an audit of the probation agency released by Nassau County Comptroller Howard Weitzman.

"When a court orders that a sex offender should be under constant electronic monitoring while on probation, the people of Nassau deserve a Department of Probation that can provide that level of protection," Weitzman said. "But our audit of the county's probation agency revealed that it monitors the tracking information from these GPS devices on less than a round-the-clock basis. This situation is unacceptable. Probation departments in other counties such as Suffolk and Westchester staff their offices in order to monitor this tracking data 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Nassau should do no less."

The locations of certain high-risk sex offender probationers are reported by a GPS tracking system operated by an outside contractor, which monitors and transmits information about probationers' movements 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Nassau Probation Department, however, does not schedule employee work hours to allow for regular monitoring of such data after 4:45 p.m. on weeknights or over the weekend; it uses employees on overtime to cover only a fraction of night and weekend hours, Weitzman said.

Except for occasional coverage by employees working on overtime, the tracking information recorded weekday nights, weekends, and holidays is not reviewed by probation staff until the next regular shift, either the following morning, or in the case of weekends, Monday morning. "The lack of direct monitoring on a continual basis leaves a period of unresponsiveness over these offenders," the audit states.

The audit notes that both Suffolk and Westchester counties have staff dedicated solely to GPS monitoring, working in shifts to provide coverage 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. "In its response to our audit," Weitzman said, "the department says it 'would like to run a 7-day operation' and is planning to do so in a pilot program beginning in the first quarter of 2007. That program should begin as soon as possible and be made permanent."

The audit also revealed weaknesses in the department's data and records management systems, in its call-in system for low-risk probationers, and inefficiencies in its deployment of personnel. Listed among the audit's other findings are:

• The department uses outmoded and inefficient data management systems. There is a pressing need for a new comprehensive case management system, which the department is in the process of procuring.

• Several department functions are inappropriately staffed with senior level employees. Trained probation officers are in some cases used to perform clerical and information technology functions, which the report describes as an inefficient and costly use of their skills and training. In one example, the data entry unit used a Probation Officer II for its clerical functions. Staffing the same position with a probation assistant could result in an annual savings of $41,000.

• The department uses an automated call-in system for lowest risk probationers, most of them convicted of DWI. The system uses automated voice recognition to identify probationers who call in monthly from an agreed-upon location using an authorized land-line telephone. Thirty percent of the probationers, however, do not have a land-line phone. Of the remainder, 20 percent either fail to call in or are not recognized by the system. More efficient systems are available. For example, New York City uses a system in which low-risk probationers check in at kiosks at various locations and answer a series of questions by means of computers. These computers use handprint software to recognize the participants in the program.

• The department's software for managing restitution payments to victims needs to be modernized in order to ensure that checks received from probationers clear before the department in turn issues checks to victims. The system also needs to be upgraded to allow checks to be issued at regular intervals, in order to avoid issuing many checks for small amounts, which is not cost-effective.

• The software for managing restitution payments is a stand-alone system that cannot be backed up to the county's computer system. As a result, a pobation employee, rather than the county IT department, backs up the system daily, and the employee takes backup tapes home to safeguard them. The audit recommends that the department make alternate provisions for safeguarding backup tapes that do not involve an employee removing the backup tapes from the department.

• Auditors found weaknesses in the department's records management system. Files were scattered at various locations, and the office is overly dependent on the institutional memory of employees managing this function.