Electronic monitoring program lacks funds

A program designed to protect domestic violence victims from their offenders during the criminal court process is expected to run out of money in August.

The Electronic Monitoring with Victim Notification Technology program was implemented statewide following the killing of Tiffany Hill, a Clark County mother and Marine sergeant who was shot in 2019 by her estranged husband. The program requires high-risk domestic violence offenders to wear GPS ankle bracelets while out of custody awaiting trial. If an offender walks into a restricted zone near the victim’s home, school or workplace, the system automatically alerts police and triggers a warning on the victim’s smartphone.

Clark County was the first Washington county to implement the program, which launched June 1, 2021, about a year after the Tiffany Hill Act went into effect.

Local deputy prosecutors now routinely request GPS tracking in both misdemeanor and felony domestic violence cases.

But funding for the program is running dry. Without an emergency injection of cash from the county, court officials say, indigent defendants will be on the hook to pay for the tracking devices.

GPS monitoring with victim notification, including the price of the victim’s phone application, costs $21 a day, according to a March 2024 county request for proposals. While the program is designed to make offenders pay for their own monitoring, judges frequently waive the cost for low-income defendants.

A combination of the county’s general fund and the public safety sales tax has funded the program, Interim Clark County District Court Administrator Whitney Littlefield said in an email.

Littlefield said the county council now must decide how to bridge the financial gap.

Meanwhile, another monitoring program also is losing funding. A grant is sunsetting for a pilot program administered through the Washington Traffic Safety Commission for the county’s alcohol monitoring program, known as SCRAM, which uses ankle bracelets to continuously monitor the sweat of DUI offenders for alcohol consumption. Officials expect that funding to run out by October, also leaving those low-income defendants on the hook to pay. SCRAM monitoring costs about $15 a day, according to the March 2024 county request for proposals.

A county spokesperson said the county manager’s office has not yet received a formal request for emergency funding for the GPS monitoring program. But the office plans to reach out to the courts to see what options are available.

‘Equal justice’

Criminal caseloads in Clark County Superior and District courts have surged, with growth averaging 13 percent per year over the past three years, according to an August 2025 memo. That means more cases being ordered to pretrial services and supervised probation.

Demand for the GPS monitoring program increased 195 percent between the first and fourth quarters of 2024 — particularly after prosecutors began requesting the technology for all domestic violence cases and some nondomestic violence cases, the memo stated.

While the GPS monitoring program saved Clark County roughly $10.6 million in jail costs in 2024, according to the memo, the strain on court resources and administrative staff continues to grow alongside the rising number of criminal cases.

Under federal and state constitutional law, courts cannot keep a person locked up before trial simply because they are too poor to pay for a condition of their release.

If the funding disappears and a defendant cannot pay for the mandatory monitoring, a judge has two options: keep the defendant in jail and face constitutional challenges from defense attorneys, or release the defendant into the community without any tracking system, leaving the victim exposed. (There have been 75 domestic violence homicides in Clark County between 1997 and 2024, according to data from the Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence.)

“Our office remains deeply concerned about the additional pretrial costs that may be placed on individuals who are already struggling financially,” Eric Schmidtke, interim director for the county’s Office of Public Defense, said in an email. “We will continue to evaluate every available legal avenue to advocate for our clients and ensure their rights are protected.

“Our priority is to support pretrial release whenever appropriate, and we are committed to challenging any financial barriers that could prevent someone from remaining in the community while their case is pending.”

Requests to continue

Vancouver defense attorney Erin McAleer previously represented indigent clients for the county.

“Anyone who has spent time in a criminal courtroom knows that money changes outcomes. A defendant with resources can fully defend a case,” McAleer said in an email. “A poor defendant often cannot. Everyone knows it, yet the people running the system continue to talk about equal justice as though saying it often enough makes it true.

“Equal justice under the law is a hollow promise when the quality of justice depends on the size of a defendant’s bank account.”

Clark County Prosecuting Attorney Tony Golik said his office will continue making GPS monitoring requests for domestic violence cases, despite the funding shortfall. He said his office doesn’t consider whether a defendant can afford to pay for the program, only victims’ safety.

“We will continue to make that request in the courts as we see appropriate. This is a budgeting issue for the court, not the prosecuting attorney’s office,” Golik said. “I hope the District Court considers this in their budgeting. It is certainly my hope that funding will happen. It’s an important service. I hope the District Court and the county consider victim safety when they consider their budget.”