Keeping abusers in place

Police and prosecutors have a new way to prevent domestic violence: Offenders now must wear an ankle bracelet that sets off an alarm when they get too close to their victims.

The device uses cellphone triangulation and global positioning to alert authorities and battered women or other domestic violence victims if the wearer enters an “exclusion zone,” usually the area around a victim’s home, school or job.

The zone is spelled out in orders of protection issued when offenders agree to wear the bracelet as part of their sentencing.

Victims are alerted to violations via text messages or a cellphone call. An alert is also sent to a Colorado-based monitoring company, which calls a 911 operator in New York. The New York Police Department is then sent to arrest the offender.

The initiative provides a “modern-day solution to an age-old problem and will assist victims to regain control of their lives,” Queens Dist. Atty. Richard A. Brown said Wednesday.

“No longer will an order of protection be simply an unenforceable piece of paper,” Brown said.

The bracelet program took effect at the end of March in Queens and Brooklyn. Police officials said the NYPD hoped to expand the program citywide.

Brooklyn Dist. Atty. Charles J. Hynes, who said he grew up in fear of his alcoholic father, says the program provides domestic violence victims an added measure of security and freedom.

“Every night, we barricaded the three entries to our house,” Hynes recalled. “That’s not a way to live, to be constrained inside your house, worried about what the next shadow might bring. Having this technology gives us a way to monitor the offenders and help the victims feel safe.”

Thus far, two men in Brooklyn and about four in Queens have been fitted with the bracelet. None have violated the terms of the orders of protection, although one man in Queens got too close to an exclusion zone, which prompted an automatic warning to authorities.

“We had him come in the next day and told him he was too close for our comfort,” said Scott E. Kessler, chief of the Domestic Violence Bureau in the Queens district attorney’s office. “He has since stayed home with his mother and not come close to the zone.”

The bracelet of another offender in a rehab program is programmed to make sure the offender attends each session and doesn’t leave early, Kessler said.

“It sort of tips that balance of power in favor of the victim and authorities,” said Wanda Lucibello, chief of the Special Victims Division in Hynes’ office. “Any time there is that shift, especially when there’s a stalker involved, it’s useful because it shows [the offender] that someone else is in control.”