Nashville has moved fast to put teeth into Tennessee’s new domestic violence law. In the first 68 days after Davidson County launched a GPS monitoring program on Jan. 30, courts ordered ankle monitors on 172 people charged with aggravated domestic assault. The devices are meant to alert victims and law enforcement if a monitored defendant moves near a protected person, but the rapid rollout is already exposing staffing and funding gaps as local officials scramble to keep up with state requirements.
State law behind the push
The monitoring program comes from the Debbie and Marie Domestic Violence Protection Act, a state law that tells courts to order GPS tracking in certain aggravated domestic assault cases unless a judge decides the defendant no longer poses a threat. The statute also requires counties to sign written agreements with qualified monitoring providers and to offer either a victim-facing app or a receptor device that can warn a protected person if an offender gets close. The bill took effect on July 1, 2024…..