Hundreds of alleged criminals missing in Chicago from ankle monitor program
Chicago is confronting a growing pretrial monitoring crisis, with hundreds of alleged offenders placed on electronic ankle monitors now unaccounted for. Mike Tobin reports that 246 people enrolled in Cook County’s pretrial program are classified as AWOL, including defendants charged with murder, sexual assault and aggravated battery. Former police chief Tom Weitzel has condemned what he describes as serious security weaknesses in the system.
In San Diego, a convicted child sex offender remained missing Sunday, two days after his GPS monitor issued a tampering alert at a worksite and supervisors arrived to discover that he had disappeared, authorities said.
Merle Wakefield, 69, was working in Rancho Bernardo when his ankle monitor entered “Tamper Mode” at approximately 3:30 a.m. Friday, according to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office.
Liberty Healthcare, the state contractor responsible for supervising Wakefield, went to the site after the alert and found both the device and Wakefield missing. The company then notified the sheriff’s office and the San Diego Police Department.
The most recent mugshot of Merle Wakefield, who is wanted after disappearing in San Diego County. (San Diego County Sheriff’s Office)
The sheriff’s office said Sunday that it “shares the community’s concerns over Merle Wakefield’s disappearance” and continues to search for him.
“We have been working diligently to locate him,” the agency said, urging anyone with information or knowledge of Wakefield’s whereabouts to contact authorities.
“It’s been more than 48 hours since Merle Wakefield took off his GPS monitor and walked away. He’s still out there,” San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond wrote on Facebook Sunday. Desmond described Wakefield as “a convicted child molester and violent rapist” and criticized the state for not publicly announcing his disappearance.
Wakefield is wanted for violating the conditions of his release, according to the sheriff’s office. The agency said he was convicted in 1980 and 1991 of lewd or lascivious acts involving a child under 14 and rape by force. He has been on conditional release since November 2024.
A 2024 mugshot of Merle Wakefield, who has been on conditional release since November of that year. (San Diego County Sheriff’s Office)
Desmond said Wakefield had already left the location by the time Liberty Healthcare personnel arrived in response to the GPS alert.
“That’s how easy it was,” Desmond wrote in an earlier post. “The state released him into our community in November 2024 and promised he’d be monitored and supervised. Less than two years later, he’s missing and wanted.”
Officials had raised concerns about Wakefield’s release before it occurred. In October 2024, a San Diego judge approved a transient release instead of assigning him to a designated residence, Fox 5/KUSI reported at the time. It marked the third effort to place Wakefield in San Diego County.
One earlier proposal would have housed Wakefield in a Poway residence near a school and park, drawing protests from local residents, according to the outlet. Poway Mayor Steve Vaus opposed the proposed location, saying that allowing Wakefield to live without a permanent address would make it more difficult for the public to know where he was staying.
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A 2021 mugshot of Merle Wakefield, who is wanted for violating the terms of his conditional release. (San Diego County District Attorney’s Office)
“It’s a shell game that puts a community at risk,” Vaus told Fox 5/KUSI, referring to the transient release arrangement.
The San Diego County District Attorney’s Office likewise opposed releasing Wakefield without a fixed residence, citing concerns about inadequate monitoring and supervision. Tanya Sierra, a spokesperson for the office, told the outlet that the Department of State Hospitals and Liberty Healthcare should locate appropriate housing where people on conditional release could be monitored closely.
California Senate Minority Leader Brian W. Jones, R-San Diego, is shown. (Reuters/Reuters Photos)
State Sen. Brian Jones also questioned where Wakefield would live. He told Fox 5/KUSI that Wakefield could end up on the streets or in a hotel paid for by taxpayers.
“Supposedly, he’s going to have a tracking device,” Jones said at the time.
Jones had also called for an audit of California’s sexually violent predator program, the outlet reported. The audit found that about 36% of participants had violated the terms of their release. Jones criticized the program’s cost and argued that the state should keep sexually violent predators in hospitals rather than place them in communities.
The California Department of State Hospitals pushed back on criticism of the release process, telling Fox 5/KUSI that the court ultimately decides whether someone designated a sexually violent predator can be conditionally released.
The department said its supervision program used GPS monitoring, unannounced home visits and surveillance, and that breaking the rules could send someone back to a state hospital. The outlet also reported that Wakefield’s court order called for 24-hour in-person supervision wherever he stayed. That report was published before the hearing to finalize his release.
Desmond renewed his objection after Wakefield disappeared.
“I’ve fought these placements from day one,” he wrote. “These people do not belong back out in the community. They belong in a state hospital or in jail. As long as Sacramento’s law keeps putting them in our neighborhoods, families are going to keep paying the price.”
Wakefield is 5 feet, 10 inches tall, weighs 230 pounds and has brown eyes, according to the sheriff’s office. Authorities warned anyone who sees him not to approach or contact him and to call 911 or local law enforcement.
News Outlet reached out to Senator Jones’ office and the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office for comment.
