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News Journal

State expanding high-tech tracking
Global positioning systems to monitor young offenders with greater precision

By RANDALL CHASE / Associated Press
03/07/2005

DOVER -- With an eye toward more efficient law enforcement, the state Division of Youth Rehabilitative Services is expanding its use of global positioning systems that track the movements of juvenile delinquents on probation or under house arrest. The division, which has about 30 GPS units available statewide, recently awarded a bid for a contract worth more than $50,000 to lease several more units, which are gradually replacing older, radio-frequency ankle bracelet systems.
Unlike a radio-frequency unit, a wireless GPS unit does not need to be hooked up to telephone line inside the offender's home. "First of all, you have to have a phone," said Rick Shaw, chief of community services for DYRS. "That often precluded kids from being able to use that system."
Another advantage of GPS is that it can pinpoint a wearer's exact location, rather than just alerting a probation officer that a subject wearing a radio-frequency ankle bracelet has strayed from the base unit. "The [radio-frequency] stuff will not allow you to locate where a person is when they're out of range," said Steve Wesley, regional administrator for juvenile probation and parole in northern New Castle County, which includes the city of Wilmington. "When they leave their home, you have no clue where they're at."
More specific data
With a GPS unit, authorities can determine whether a drug offender on probation is hanging out in a known drug-dealing hot spot, or whether a sex offender is too close to a school, day-care center or his victim's home. In addition to warning of a subject's approach to "exclusion" zones, GPS technology can monitor "inclusion" zones to ensure that an offender is complying with orders to go to school, work, or counseling sessions. "It allows more intensive community-based supervision for kids who have serious offenses," Wesley said. "If every five minutes, the probation officer is showing up where you're not supposed to be or they're calling you ... it modifies behavior." "They're not crazy about them," Wesley said of his clients. "One kid said, 'I'd rather do 72 hours in detention than wear this thing for two weeks.' " The GPS units were introduced about a year ago in Delaware as part of a federally funded after-care program in Dover for offenders released from custody. A second pilot program using state funds began late last year in Wilmington.
Under the new contract being negotiated with Sentinel Offender Services LLC of Irvine, Calif., the number of GPS units might double. In addition to making new units available, Sentinel will assume responsibility for pilot program services now being provided by iSECUREtrac Corp. of Omaha, Neb., and Pro Tech Monitoring Inc. of Odessa, Fla., officials said. Shaw said electronic monitoring can be used as a sanction against an offender for not complying with the terms of his probation or release, or as part of a transition from an institution to a community. GPS technology allows electronic monitoring of more serious offenders who would not be suitable candidates for less precise RF monitoring, he noted. "We're constantly looking to expand our alternatives to secure detention," Shaw said.
Passive and active monitoring
The GPS units typically consist of a small, lightweight ankle bracelet and a personal transmitter unit, or PTU, worn on a shoulder strap or around an offender's waist. The system sends an alert if the ankle bracelet is not within a prescribed range of the PTU, which is in constant signal contact with a network of Department of Defense navigation satellites orbiting 11,000 miles above the earth. GPS monitoring technology comes in two types, active and passive. With a passive system, information on an offender's movements is stored in the PTU and can be reviewed by a probation officer on the Internet after the offender inserts the PTU into a cradle. Active GPS units, such as those used in Delaware, allow real-time tracking of the wearer through a cell-phone modem in the PTU. Using GPS technology, authorities can plot a subject's path, identify the closest street address, retrace a person's movements over several days, and calculate the speed of his movement to determine whether he is walking or using a vehicle.
The state pays about $12 a day to monitor an offender 24 hours a day with GPS, compared to $150 to $200 to keep a person locked up or in a community-based program, Wesley said. "The cost savings potential is tremendous, without really losing anything," he said. "They're still involved with their family, they're still involved in school."