AUGUSTA – Having determined that a decade-old stalking law in Maine has not kept pace with changes in technology, a task force appointed by the state attorney general is recommending several updates be considered by lawmakers in the new year.

With modern-day stalkers using global positioning satellites and the Internet to track their victims, “the problem has become much greater than maintaining visual contact or visual proximity to a victim,” said Assistant Attorney General Jessica Maurer, the chairwoman of the group. The law needs to catch up with the technology, she said.

Attorney General Steven Rowe created the task force – composed of residents, law enforcement, prosecutors and anti-domestic violence advocates – in response to concerns that were raised that Maine’s law had become outdated, Maurer said.

“Stalking is generally defined as a course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person fear,” according to the National Center for the Victims of Crime. However, stalking statutes and the standards that apply to the crime of stalking vary from state to state.

“When folks think about stalking they may think of somebody who is watching them through binoculars,” said Gretchen Ziemer of the Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence. “That’s one possibility. It’s that somebody is keeping an eye on you, and knowing where you are going and what you are doing.”

But with new technology, she said, stalking may be done through computer software that tracks every Web site a victim visits and every e-mail the victim sends or receives. She said there also are examples of wireless TV cameras and tracking devices tied to global positioning satellites being used to stalk individuals.

Such behavior is not specifically covered under the state’s current stalking law and needs to be clarified, she said.

Ziemer said one technological change that was not thought of when the original law was passed in Maine about 10 years ago involves the use of prepaid cell phones that can’t be traced to call a victim repeatedly. She said that is frustrating to the victim and to law enforcement.

Maurer said the task force’s recommendations include changes in the definition of stalking to reflect more aptly what is happening today. For example, new language would include inflicting emotional distress under the law as well as the fear of injury or death to a pet.

Both Maurer and Ziemer said the proposed legislation is only part of an effort to create greater public awareness of the crime of stalking and to highlight that help is available. The task force also recommends more training for domestic violence counselors and police among other efforts to bolster awareness of stalking.

About 80 percent of stalking cases nationally involve women being stalked by ex-boyfriends and former husbands. National statistics also show that 1 in 12 women and 1 in 45 men will be stalked during their lifetime, Maurer said. Since Maine law enforcement officials do not yet collect and record stalking crimes separately, there are no hard numbers to prove it, but Maurer believes the state falls in line with those national statistics.

“The domestic violence projects across the state … are hearing from people who are saying they are being harassed or being stalked,” Zeimer said. “Many people don’t know what stalking is, and when they call in and talk with staff at the DV projects they say that has happened to me and I didn’t know that was against the law and I can call the police and get help.”

Maurer said the task force believes the problem is as widespread in Maine as in the rest of the country and deserves more attention. She said the national statistics indicate the average duration of stalking is 1.8 years and all too often escalates into violence.

“The statistics are scary,” she said. “Eighty-one percent of women stalked by a current or former partner are also physically assaulted by that partner.”

Zeimer said women have changed phone numbers, moved, changed jobs and in some cases moved out of state to try to get away from stalkers.

“People’s lives have been disrupted and ruined by this crime,” she said.

In addition to acquaintance stalking, Maurer said, there is also stranger stalking that often gets more publicity. Bangor author Stephen King, for example, was stalked by a fan a few years ago and it attracted a lot of publicity.

“It’s all stalking, and it’s illegal in every state,” Maurer said.