Tennessee will GPS track violent domestic abusers with first-of-its-kind law

A new Tennessee law went into effect Monday requiring certain domestic violence offenders to wear GPS tracking devices while out on bail.

Gov. Bill Lee (R-TN) signed the Debbie and Marie Domestic Violence Protection Act into law in May, which requires courts to order the most violent domestic offenders to wear a GPS tracking device “unless the court finds the offender no longer poses a threat to the alleged victim or public safety.”

Under the law, victims are provided with an app or electronic receptor device that notifies them if the offender is within a certain distance of their location. Law enforcement officers are also notified via text message and email if defendants violate the conditions of their bond.

The offender is required to pay all costs associated with both their GPS tracking device and the victim’s monitoring app.

The law is named after Debbie Sisco and her daughter, Marie Varsos, who were shot and killed by Marie’s estranged husband, Shaun Varsos, in 2021 while he was out on bail after strangling and threatening to shoot his wife the month before.

Previously, judges had the option to require GPS tracking as a condition of bail, but they often didn’t, CBS News reported .

Alex Youn, Sisco's son and Marie Varsos’s brother, spent the following years advocating mandatory GPS tracking for aggravated assault offenders in domestic violence cases.

“While several things could have been done to make it harder for my brother-in-law to harm our family, there’s only one thing that I’ve been able to identify that if implemented at the time of their death, they might still be with us here today,” Youn told NewsChannel 5 Nashville.

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If Shaun Varsos had been monitored by GPS, Sisco and Marie Varsos “could’ve contacted law enforcement, secured their firearms faster, strategized a plan, and even had time to say goodbye,” he added.

“I’m hopeful that other states will potentially sort of look at what Tennessee is sort of doing and take this and implement it in other states as well,” he told CBS News.