Mobile County Sheriff Burch Wants His Office, Not Private Companies Monitoring Electronic Ankle Monitors 

MOBILE COUNTY, Ala.

A murder suspect who was out on bond wearing an ankle bracelet allowed his unit to go uncharged and die which stopped sending GPS signals to the monitoring company in charge of tracking the person and then he slipped out of sight of that private monitoring company’s sight and murdered another person.

Mobile County. Sheriff Paul Burch says that there’s been numerous issues with the private companies who monitor people wearing the devices and that he wants law enforcement to take over the program.

Nyyon Sanders was out on bond in a 2022 murder case. As a condition of his release, the judge ordered him to wear an electronic ankle monitor, so law enforcement would know where he was. Court documents state the 19-year-old “allowed the device to go dead” and on Monday night he went to Dauphin Gate Apartments, a place he was not allowed to go as a condition of his bond. Police say Sanders shot and killed Joseph Evans Jr. at the complex.

The monitoring company had no idea what happened, where Sanders was or what he was up to.

“What we’ve been hearing with some of these companies is that they would let violations slide because they have a financial reason to keep the funds coming in,” said Burch.

Burch says he’s in serious discussions with law enforcement leaders and has a plan in place for his department to take over the electronic monitoring of suspects out on bond.

“The advantage to that is, if there is a violation, deputies have powers of arrest, and we can go address it immediately, rather than wait until the court opens the next day,” said Burch.

Burch says it would take about six deputies and two civilians to monitor the roughly 200 criminal defendants currently wearing ankle monitors. He says his department could be ready in a couple of weeks to take over, but realistically if this plan moves forward, he will wait to start operating the program after the holidays.

“We would have to bring individuals in groups at a time to change out the monitors. They would sign the new contract. Thvery, very clear language in there, and they’ll sign that they understand that, and one of those will be boldly printed. There’ll be zero tolerance of violations. That’ll be automatic revocation. You’ll go back to jail,” said Burch.

Burch says the startup cost would be approximately $1.6 million, but he says, it’s money the county could recoup through fees charged to those wearing the monitors. Burch says he’ll need funding approval from Mobile County Commissioners and is in talks with the city about possibly helping with funding.