8% of people on electronic monitoring in Cook County are AWOL, state's attorney's report says

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A new report shows just how many people have gone missing while on electronic monitoring in Cook County. The Cook County state's attorney released new numbers just weeks after she said the system is broken.

A new report from the chief judge of Cook County says 8% of people on electronic monitoring are currently AWOL. The admission is part of an effort to promote a new level of transparency about the program in the aftermath of several violent incidents involving people who were on electronic monitoring.

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The report says there are 3,048 people on the program, meaning that 244 people with pending criminal cases, most likely felony charges, are not complying with the rules.

Cook County Chief Judge Charles Beach II said on Tuesday, "The public has a right to know how this program operates, what the data shows and what we are doing every day to make it stronger."

The office responded to requests for data after the April 25 fatal shooting of Chicago Police Officer John Bartholomew and the wounding of his partner as they guarded a suspect at Swedish Hospital.

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Prosecutors allege that Alphonso Talley, a felon with four pending felony cases who escaped electronic monitoring in April, shot the officers. At that time, the Cook County state's attorney blasted the program.

"Electronic monitoring system is broken. It does not work," Cook County State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke said at the time.

Beach has redefined a "major violation" as an unapproved absence of three hours or more, down from the previous threshold of 48 hours. And his office said just 4% of program participants were considered AWOL before the new protocols took effect on Jan. 28 but noted that the definition of AWOL was more lenient then.

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