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San Francisco Officials Say High-Tech Stalking On The Rise

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) – Millions of people in the United States are victims of stalking every year, and according to officials at a San Francisco conference on domestic violence, the issue has gone high tech.

People aged 18 to 24 experience the highest rate of stalking, and increasingly it's done online, or through people's personal cell phones.

At a conference Wednesday on domestic violence held by the San Francisco District Attorney's Office, Emberly Cross of the nonprofit Cooperative Restraining Order Clinic said that technology has taken stalking to a whole new level.

KCBS' Bob Melrose Reports:

"It's much easier for people to track people online," said Cross. "To track what they're doing, and track where they're going. The technology is quite frightening, what people can do now."

Cross said that stalkers can even hack into their victim's phone, even turning on the camera to see or hear where the victim is, and what they are doing.

She said that the technology has made it more difficult for law enforcement agencies to attain restraining orders, or take legal action against stalkers.

(Copyright 2011 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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