23). These types of surveillance systems, though, introduce new privacy concerns, even for offenders, given the fundamental constitutional rights that are involved. As Schwabe et al. emphasize, "It should be noted, however, that such systems raise many of the same civil liberties issues discussed above vis-a-vis video surveillance. As a result, they represent another case where the use of a technology by law enforcement must be balanced against individual rights and the resulting (potentially conflicting) public perceptions of the activity" (Schwabe et al., 2001, p. 23). While the debate over civil liberties vs. public safety continues, the use of GPS-enabled tracking devices continues to increase in jurisdictions across the country.
One company that has been in the vanguard of developing GIS-equipped offender tracking products is Quest Guard, whose offerings are representative of the devices that are currently being used. Their promotional literature notes that the TrackerPAL combines miniaturized cellular and global positioning system (GPS) technologies into a small patented and proprietary device backed by a 24/7 Offender Monitoring Center (TM) and supported by a robust GIS database. As a result, the TrackerPAL solution will automatically track and monitor the location of serious offenders in real-time while also providing supervising officers round-the-clock cellular communications capabilities for probationers, parolees, and offenders. The TrackPal GPS Offender device is illustrated in Figure 1 below.
Figure 1. TrackerPAL GPS Offender
Source: http://www.questguard.com/images/trackerpal%202007.jpg
The company cites the following attributes of its TrackerPAL solution:
1. Active, single-unit tracking device;
2. Two/three way voice communication (recorded and archived);
3. 24/7/365 Monitoring Center
4. Rechargeable Removable Battery (24+ hours external / 1.5 hours internal)
5. Multi-Functional Alarm Capabilities (Exclusion/Inclusion/Proximity/Tamper/Strap/Battery)
6. "Store and Forward" Data Capabilities
7. Secure, Web-Based Software
The company also reports that it provides law enforcement authorities with 24-hour technical support, as well as maintaining its own national monitoring center for tracking offender-equipped tracking devices. The company enthuses that, "This center is specifically designed to monitor and track in real-time. The PAL Monitoring center is the most advanced in the world. Our Monitoring Center is specifically designed to monitor in real -- time. No other company offers this advanced or diverse level of tracking capability!" (Guard Quest, 2011, para. 4). Such hyperbolic marketing rhetoric aside, it should be noted that some offenders have succeeded in defeating and escaping from these devices and Cassel (2008) suggests that they need to be fine-tuned to be more reliable and efficient.
Current and Future Trends
In the science-fiction motion picture, "Demolition Man" starring Sylvester Stallone, everyone is equipped with a tracking chip embedded under their skin, making tracking easy and ubiquitous. While this futuristic eventuality may sound scary from a civil liberties perspective (and it is), the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags for such applications is becoming increasingly commonplace for livestock and pets, and some humans have even voluntarily had such tags physically embedded for experimental and personal reasons. It is not too much of a stretch of the imagination to envision an Orwellian country where the benefits of using these technologies for law enforcement outweigh the privacy and civil liberties issues that are involved. In fact, these trends can be discerned from current legislation such as the Pam Lychner Sex Offender Tracking and Identification Act of 1996. This act mandates that the U.S. Attorney General develop and maintain a national sex offender database and requires the FBI to verify sex offenders' addresses on a regular basis (Rickart, 2010). Likewise, law enforcement authorities in the United States are compiling growing databases of DNA samples and it is reasonable to suggest that these trends will continue into the foreseeable future until the point is reached where everyone's identity and whereabouts will be common knowledge and privacy and anonymity are things of the past.
Conclusion
The research showed that offender tracking systems have been used for the past several decades because they represent a cost-effective and viable alternative to incarceration for some offenders. These systems can also be used to ensure that parolees and probationers are complying with the terms of their release. Two traditional methods that have been widely used and remain in use in many parts of the country involve physical visitations to offenders' residences to verify their presence, and telephonic and television approaches where law enforcement authorities can monitor the physical presence of offenders in their homes remotely. A superior alternative,...
Offender Reentry Program Proposal The concept of offender "reentry" is beginning to take the corrections world by storm -- a much overdue storm. Reentry is the process of prisoners reentering society after a period of incarceration in a prison, jail, or detention facility. But it doesn't signify just "letting them go." It connotes that offenders are "prepared" to be released. It means that they are much better off at the time
For the former, the cellular provider (as mandated by a court order) forwards information from the site of the phone to law enforcement authorities, allowing these authorities to fixate the location of a subject and to proceed accordingly. For the latter, an audio device consisting of a transmitter, antennae and power source is attached to a person to relay interactive surveillance in a manner which is highly covert. No
To the extent the totality of circumstances suggest that possibility, even acceptance of the most nominal gratuities (i.e. A cup of coffee) is ethically inappropriate. Similarly, even where the gratuity involved is of nominal value and there is no potential misunderstanding on the part of the individual proffering an otherwise appropriate gratuity, there is the issue of creating the appearance or inference of an improper relationship from the perspective of
Technology and Criminal Justice System The American prisons are known to be hosting some of the highest number of prisoners in relation to the entire population. The criminal justice system has over the years proven to be punitive and offenders have often found themselves incarcerated upon presentation of evidence. With the improvement of technology, there have been even more people getting convictions, increasing the number of people behind the prison walls.
In addition, expect an in-car camera increase, to expand "an effort to protect officers from unwarranted complaints (CPD, 2007)." • Expect an increase in the availability of hardware devices based on any increase in system or application users. Consider the hardware users for Santa Barbara in a parallel comparison: The Santa Barbara "population includes all full-time employees and also includes Reserve Officers, volunteers, Explorers, temporary employees, and a small number
3. Variables Such as Gender There are various disparities in the overall demographics of this type of offense. As one report on the demographics of sex offenders in the United States, notes; "… although the vast majority of attention on sex crimes focuses on men as the offenders, an increased awareness of females as sex offenders has surfaced in recent years." (Female Sex Offenders, 2007) This study also adds the important
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