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News & Noteworthy © ---
Feature 11-10-06 |
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The Bamboozling of California Voters: Prop 83's GPS!
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11-9-2006 California:
Attack of the Perv Trackers |
.If the creepy guy next door suddenly stops wearing shorts, he may have an eye in the sky to blame. Just a few years ago, satellite tracking of convicts was a newfangled alternative to house arrest. Now, the number of American ex-offenders tracked through GPS-equipped ankle bracelets will likely triple to more than 30,000, thanks to the passage of a California ballot measure. California's Proposition 83, which easily passed Tuesday by a margin of 70 percent to 30 percent, requires many convicted sex offenders to be monitored by GPS for life. Only those who committed felonies and served time in prison will be affected.
But there's a hitch: The ankle bracelets -- usually accompanied by digital-pager-size transmitters -- are hardly criminal-proof. Convicts can easily cut the bracelets off and run away as their probation officer gets an alarm and tries to contact the local police. For health reasons, the bracelets aren't designed to be permanent. "GPS will not prevent a crime," said Steve Chapin, CEO of Pro Tech Monitoring, a manufacturer of GPS tracking devices. "It's a crime deterrent. It has proven to be a good tool, but you can't oversell it -- there's no physical barrier that it creates that can prevent a crime."
There are an estimated 63,000 to 90,000 sex offenders convicted of felonies and misdemeanors in California. According to Chapin, it's possible that about 20,000 of them will need GPS monitoring under the new law. Chapin expects the state to adopt "active" monitoring, which tracks offenders in real time and sends out alerts if they go somewhere they're not supposed to, such as a school.
Currently, Pro Tech charges $6 to $8 a day for active monitoring, and $4 to $5 a day for passive monitoring, equipment included. At that rate, California can expect to fork out between $80,000 and $160,000 per day to watch its sex offenders, although the ballot measure allows increases in court fees and other costs that offenders are billed.
GPS tracking technology allows users to create "geofences" to mark forbidden "hot zones." The monitoring systems can even be programmed so that alarms only go off if an offender spends a certain amount of time in an outlawed area instead of, say, simply driving through it at high speed on the way to somewhere else.
..more..
: by Randy Dotinga
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.Yes Californians you've been hoodwinked by sly politicians! Study the costs of GPS for the estimated 20,000 offenders you want to monitor daily for the rest of their lives: $160,000 per day or $58,400,000 per year.
That is for the 20,000 known today, and not counting future offenders. That buys knowing what? Remember, the manufacturer admits "GPS WILL NOT PREVENT CRIMES," but it will tell you who the offender WAS after the deed has been done.
So, will GPS save lives? You be the judge.
Now, look closely at the "Hot Zones" that GPS can be programmed for, known schools or other prohibited "hot zones," but also notice, it cannot be programmed for the bedroom of every child in America. Oh, the politicians didn't tell you that. Well, California's John-Q-Public voted to put them in office and for their expertise in protecting children. What else haven't they told you?
News artilce: "Users in Ga., Minn. say GPS a helpful tool but not foolproof," by Aaron Chambers, Rockford Register Star 3-26-2005:
"Officials warn that much manpower is required to track sex offenders by satellite. Still, he and a Minnesota official have advice for Illinois: Don't be fooled into thinking GPS is a guaranteed way to prevent crime and don't underestimate how much labor it takes to manage a GPS system. Oleson said Georgia parole officers quickly discovered that there's a steep learning curve to getting accustomed to the equipment and sifting through the reams of data generated every day. Georgia is five months into a 12-month GPS pilot project.
"A lot of the general public thinks that it's all computer-oriented and that one person can keep track of 100 or 200 people. But it's not that way at all," he said. "You're going to get these violation notifications, and you're going to have to go in and look at each offender for that violation, see where he is, and see what was going on and determine whether that was a real violation."
In Minnesota, the Department of Corrections has been using GPS to track the most dangerous sex offenders for about a year. Department spokeswoman Liz Bogut said it's a useful supervision tool -- with limitations. The device will alert authorities that it's been tampered with, but they won't know where the offender is. "If the offender ditches the transmitting device at any time, say he drops it on his bed and then walks out the door, it's no longer effective," she said.
Oh, the politicians also failed to advise folks that, GPS requires a support staff. Now can anyone guess what they will cost, in addition to the $58,400,000 equipment costs?
Maybe voters should ask for a litmus test before allowing politicians to run for office? OK, enough of the knocking your politicians, you voted for them, now let me show you other problems with GPS systems. "Teacher pleads no contest in molestation of student." Hummm, GPS would not have prevented this crime or many others that occur within schools in California. OK, a litmus test for teachers, that should solve it, right? Should teachers be wearing GPS units too? Thats right, GPS will not prevent crimes, so sayeth the manufacturer.
Now, all GPS systems whether they are the type found in your car or the type used to track people, are subject to frailties of the signal between the GPS unit and the satellites. Here is a good primer on GPS, for beginners. As you read that pay particular attention to comments such as "The signal travels 'line of sight', meaning it will go through plastic, glass, clouds but will not go through most solid objects. i.e., buildings" Should an offender be traveing through a city where there are many tall buildings then the signal will be affected causing false positives that someone must check out. Signal troubles are likened to cell phone signal problems. "Can you hear me now?"
OK, how accurate are GPS systems? Certain atmospheric factors and other sources of error can affect the accuracy of GPS receivers. What? Atmospheric factors like sunspots, hurricanes, tornados, major storms. Garmin® GPS receivers are accurate to within 15 meters on average. Lets see, 1 meter = 3.2808399 feet, so 15 meters is 49.2 feet. Thats 49 feet to the left of a point on earth, and, 49 feet to the right of a point on earth; 98 feet total -on average-.
So, Prop 83 intends to draw a circle (Hot Zone)around every place children gather. I presume that local assessors' office and surveyors will be able to survey each "Hot Zone" to identify the property lines? Wait a minute, do children always gather in circles? Are properties always circular? Are schools always circular? How will police measure
-the outer Hot Zone boundaries-, since properties are all sizes and shapes? Yet, we know this, that the point where they begin the measurement, if determined by a GPS unit, has a tolerance of 49 feet left/right of the point. Likewise is the point where the measurement ends. What will the costs of this be?
The costs here are astronomical, to just follow previously convicted offenders. "Previously convicted" is a key statement because it infers that "previously convicted" offenders are going to recidivate. The US Dep't of Justice, in 2003, tells us that sex offender recidivism rates are 3.5% within 3-years of being released from prison. That exact same study tells us, that 93.3% of the offenses against minors (folks under 18) are committed by a family member, friend or acquaintance. All these people would bypass the GPS units, meaning GPS units are highly unlikely to prevent offenses.
Over $100,000,000 per year and it is not likely it would PREVENT but a miniscule number of crimes! Now, given that California has no sex offender therapy in-prisons, if a greater portion of the 100mil was spent on in-prison therapy, that would PREVENT crimes. Therapy attacks the root cause of the problem BEFORE a crime is committed, it does not follow the offender to his next crime. Failure to address the root cause allows the problem to continue! Is that what politicians secretly want?
So, will GPS prevent crime and protect children, or line the pockets of vendors? You know, all those special interest folks that hang around politicians. Have you been bamboozled?
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