Advances in recent technology have given the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office an edge when it comes to monitoring people on house arrest.

“All the monitoring is done on an interactive Web site,” said Brad Sorenson, DeKalb County deputy assigned to electronic home monitoring. “I can monitor anybody from anywhere as long as I have an Internet connection.”

The technology helped capture Jon B. Luttrel, 46, of Sandwich, at 8:41 p.m. Wednesday through a global positioning satellite chip in the anklet he wore.

Police located Luttrel at a location with an order of protection against him and arrested him for violation of electronic home monitoring and stalking.

But keeping track of each person consists of more than just watching a computer screen.

The electronic home monitoring system does not help find everybody, Sorenson said. It just makes the police aware of when somebody is not where they’re supposed to be.

Someone on house arrest will still need to go to a doctor’s appointment, go to the hospital for emergencies or serve community service, he said.

“It’s my job to make sure they go to where they are supposed to go,” Sorenson said.

Being under house arrest does not prevent someone from earning a living.

“Even though somebody is on house arrest, they aren’t going to lose their job and can continue to provide for their family while they are being held accountable for what they did,” he said.

House arrest can be assigned to a person for a variety of charges.

“It’s up to the judge to decide the sentence,” said DeKalb County Sheriff Roger Scott.

Some charges of the 32 people currently under house arrest in DeKalb County are aggravated robbery, disorderly conduct, possession of cannabis, DUI, burglary and criminal sexual assault.

While under house arrest, they pay a fee per day for the electronic home monitoring system as well as pay for their own food and medical expenses, Scott said.

“Electronic home monitoring is an effective way to deal with overcrowding [in prisons],” Scott said.