CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department is cutting ties with electronic monitoring when it comes to murder suspects.
Chief Kerr Putney announced the new policy on Friday. The department will no longer use electronic monitoring for people charged with homicide.
"I cannot stand behind having homicide suspects on EM (electronic monitoring) that we monitor out in the community. I think the better place for them would be in jail awaiting trial," said Putney.
Currently, 31 of the 463 people being monitored are murder suspects, 134 are charged with armed robbery, and 127 people have cut their device off.
Putney said the $400,000 program doesn't have the staffing to keep up. And from a public safety perspective, he said letting murder suspects out in the community with a monitor doesn't make sense.
"So from now on they're going to have to be either held in jail or the judge is going to let them out, but we can't in good faith allow for our people to monitor people who are charged with murder," Putney said.
The new policy takes effect next week. The 31 homicide suspects currently on electric monitoring will remain in the program, but CMPD will not accept any new people charged with murder.
The chief is also looking at ending the program for people charged with armed robbery, but that hasn't been decided yet.