Electronic tagging
Encyclopedia
Electronic tagging is a form of non-surreptitious surveillance
consisting of an electronic device attached to a person or vehicle, especially certain criminals, allowing their whereabouts to be monitored. In general, devices locate themselves using GPS
and report their position back to a control centre, for example via a cellular (mobile) phone
network. This form of criminal sentencing, or increasingly a form of pre-release from detention monitoring, is known under different names in different countries; for example in New Zealand
it is referred to as "home detention", and in North America
"electronic monitoring" is a more common term. Electronic monitoring has been said to be particularly useful for early detection of flight when defendants have been granted pretrial release, or for preparing incarcerated individuals for release back into the community. Increasingly Electronic tagging has become a tool for courts, penal institutions or hospital facilities, to manage individuals both within their facilities and external to their premises. Typical European usage of electronic tagging includes pre-trial and pre-release management of the person monitored. Use of tagging instead of incarceration reduces custody population and verifies that the person will obey conditions of release from custody.
The same technology can be used for covert surveillance, particularly of vehicles, but would be called "tracking" rather than "tagging".
about an FCC-licensed experimental radio station to locate and send two-way radio signals to juvenile offenders. A collection of tagging devices used in the United States between 1970 and 1990, and a summary of their early history, with photographs, is housed at the Archives of the History of American Psychology, University of Akron, Akron, Ohio, USA.
In 1981 writer Tom Stacey took to the British Home Office
a proposal for the electronic tagging of offenders to track their movements, or fix a home curfew, using cellular radio telephone technology. Stacey had been briefly imprisoned abroad in his former role as a foreign correspondent and had for several years served as a Prison Visitor in England. He followed his presentation to the Home Office with a letter to The Times
(published October 6, 1982) outlining the proposal and his immediate formation of the Offender's Tag Association, composed of electronic scientists, penologists and prominent citizens. The term 'tagging' thus entered the vocabulary in the penal context. In March 1983 the Offender's Tag Association held a national press conference. Later that year, a district court judge, Jack Love, persuaded Michael Goss, a computer salesperson, to develop a system to monitor five offenders in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Judge Love was supposedly inspired to act based upon a storyline in a Spider-Man
comic, specifically the newspaper comic strip version
where the Kingpin
puts an electronic bracelet on the superhero primarily to follow his movements. This was probably the first court-sanctioned use of electronic monitoring.
Until the widespread adoption of cellular and broadband internet networks in the mid-1990s, electronic monitoring devices were typically home-based, dependent on a dedicated land line, and able to report only whether or not the criminal being tracked was remaining at home. This was useful for criminals on work-release, parole, or probation, for example DWI offenders who were allowed to leave home to go to work during daytime hours but had to return home and remain there after a certain time of the evening. More recent technology such as GPS and cellular networks have permitted courts to order more specific restrictions, such as permitting a registered child sex offender to leave his home at any time of day, but alerting authorities if they come within 100 metres of a school, park, or playground.
, where a base station is connected to the mains supply at the offender's home, and a tag is attached to the offender's ankle. If the tag isn't functioning and within range of the base during curfew hours, or if the base is disconnected from the power supply, then the authorities are automatically alerted. Some systems are connected to a hard wired telephone line, whilst more modern systems utilise a mobile phone/celluar system to communicate with the authorities. The system can also be used to enforce restrictions away from specified locations such as victims' homes, and football grounds. Instead of allowing full location tracking, this system can be used to enforce the curfews which commonly form part of community-based sentences, the conditions of Home Detention Curfew
or parole of offenders released from prison. Most of these uses are now covered by the Criminal Justice Act 2003
in England and Wales, with separate legislation applying in Scotland. The system is also used for monitoring those subject to house arrest
or other "Control order
s" under the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005
.
A similar system is also in use in Belgium
.
The monitoring of sex offenders via Electronic Tagging is currently in debate due to certain rights offenders have in England & Wales. http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2010/aug/12/larry-murphy-electronic-tagging
Electronic tagging has begun being used on psychiatric patients, prompting concern from mental health advocates who state that the practice is demeaning. http://www.blackmentalhealth.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=789&Itemid=117
Surveillance
Surveillance is the monitoring of the behavior, activities, or other changing information, usually of people. It is sometimes done in a surreptitious manner...
consisting of an electronic device attached to a person or vehicle, especially certain criminals, allowing their whereabouts to be monitored. In general, devices locate themselves using GPS
Global Positioning System
The Global Positioning System is a space-based global navigation satellite system that provides location and time information in all weather, anywhere on or near the Earth, where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites...
and report their position back to a control centre, for example via a cellular (mobile) phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
network. This form of criminal sentencing, or increasingly a form of pre-release from detention monitoring, is known under different names in different countries; for example in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
it is referred to as "home detention", and in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
"electronic monitoring" is a more common term. Electronic monitoring has been said to be particularly useful for early detection of flight when defendants have been granted pretrial release, or for preparing incarcerated individuals for release back into the community. Increasingly Electronic tagging has become a tool for courts, penal institutions or hospital facilities, to manage individuals both within their facilities and external to their premises. Typical European usage of electronic tagging includes pre-trial and pre-release management of the person monitored. Use of tagging instead of incarceration reduces custody population and verifies that the person will obey conditions of release from custody.
The same technology can be used for covert surveillance, particularly of vehicles, but would be called "tracking" rather than "tagging".
Background
In 1964 Ralph Kirkland Schwitzgebel (family name later shortened to "Gable") headed a research team at Harvard that experimented with a prototype electronic monitoring system. In 1969 he and William S. Hurd were granted patent #3,478,344. Also in 1969, Robert Schwitzgebel ("Gable"), a professor at UCLA and Claremont Graduate University in California, wrote an article in Psychology TodayPsychology Today
Psychology Today is a bi-monthly magazine published in the United States. It is a psychology-based magazine about relationships, health, and related topics written for a mass audience of non-psychologists. Psychology Today was founded in 1967 and features articles on such topics as love,...
about an FCC-licensed experimental radio station to locate and send two-way radio signals to juvenile offenders. A collection of tagging devices used in the United States between 1970 and 1990, and a summary of their early history, with photographs, is housed at the Archives of the History of American Psychology, University of Akron, Akron, Ohio, USA.
In 1981 writer Tom Stacey took to the British Home Office
Home Office
The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...
a proposal for the electronic tagging of offenders to track their movements, or fix a home curfew, using cellular radio telephone technology. Stacey had been briefly imprisoned abroad in his former role as a foreign correspondent and had for several years served as a Prison Visitor in England. He followed his presentation to the Home Office with a letter to The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
(published October 6, 1982) outlining the proposal and his immediate formation of the Offender's Tag Association, composed of electronic scientists, penologists and prominent citizens. The term 'tagging' thus entered the vocabulary in the penal context. In March 1983 the Offender's Tag Association held a national press conference. Later that year, a district court judge, Jack Love, persuaded Michael Goss, a computer salesperson, to develop a system to monitor five offenders in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Judge Love was supposedly inspired to act based upon a storyline in a Spider-Man
Spider-Man
Spider-Man is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko. He first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15...
comic, specifically the newspaper comic strip version
The Amazing Spider-Man
The Amazing Spider-Man is an American comic book series published by Marvel Comics, featuring the adventures of the fictional superhero Spider-Man. Being the mainstream continuity of the franchise, it began publication in 1963 as a monthly periodical and was published continuously until it was...
where the Kingpin
Kingpin (comics)
The Kingpin is a fictional character, a supervillain in the . Kingpin is one of the most feared and powerful crime lords in the Marvel Universe. The character is a major adversary of Daredevil, the Punisher, and Spider-Man...
puts an electronic bracelet on the superhero primarily to follow his movements. This was probably the first court-sanctioned use of electronic monitoring.
Until the widespread adoption of cellular and broadband internet networks in the mid-1990s, electronic monitoring devices were typically home-based, dependent on a dedicated land line, and able to report only whether or not the criminal being tracked was remaining at home. This was useful for criminals on work-release, parole, or probation, for example DWI offenders who were allowed to leave home to go to work during daytime hours but had to return home and remain there after a certain time of the evening. More recent technology such as GPS and cellular networks have permitted courts to order more specific restrictions, such as permitting a registered child sex offender to leave his home at any time of day, but alerting authorities if they come within 100 metres of a school, park, or playground.
In the United Kingdom
A simpler form is in regular use in the United KingdomUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, where a base station is connected to the mains supply at the offender's home, and a tag is attached to the offender's ankle. If the tag isn't functioning and within range of the base during curfew hours, or if the base is disconnected from the power supply, then the authorities are automatically alerted. Some systems are connected to a hard wired telephone line, whilst more modern systems utilise a mobile phone/celluar system to communicate with the authorities. The system can also be used to enforce restrictions away from specified locations such as victims' homes, and football grounds. Instead of allowing full location tracking, this system can be used to enforce the curfews which commonly form part of community-based sentences, the conditions of Home Detention Curfew
Home Detention Curfew
Home Detention Curfew is a detention scheme in the United Kingdom whereby certain short-term criminals are released from prison several weeks to months before the completion of their sentence to allow them to integrate back into society...
or parole of offenders released from prison. Most of these uses are now covered by the Criminal Justice Act 2003
Criminal Justice Act 2003
The Criminal Justice Act 2003 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is a wide ranging measure introduced to modernise many areas of the criminal justice system in England and Wales and, to a lesser extent, in Scotland and Northern Ireland....
in England and Wales, with separate legislation applying in Scotland. The system is also used for monitoring those subject to house arrest
House arrest
In justice and law, house arrest is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to his or her residence. Travel is usually restricted, if allowed at all...
or other "Control order
Control order
A control order is an order made by the Home Secretary of the United Kingdom to restrict an individual's liberty for the purpose of "protecting members of the public from a risk of terrorism". Its definition and power were provided by Parliament in the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005...
s" under the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005
Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005
The Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, intended to deal with the Law Lords' ruling of 16 December 2004 that the detention without trial of eight foreigners at HM Prison Belmarsh under Part 4 of the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001...
.
A similar system is also in use in Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
.
The monitoring of sex offenders via Electronic Tagging is currently in debate due to certain rights offenders have in England & Wales. http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2010/aug/12/larry-murphy-electronic-tagging
Electronic tagging has begun being used on psychiatric patients, prompting concern from mental health advocates who state that the practice is demeaning. http://www.blackmentalhealth.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=789&Itemid=117
In Brazil
In August 2010 Brazil awarded a GPS Offender Monitoring contract to kick start its monitoring of offenders and management of the Brazilian governments early release programmeThe device
The current UK G4S administered ankle device is made up of a black band, approximately 2.5 cm in width, with an 8 cm long x 3 cm wide grey 'heart'. Along the length of the black strap at the edges run 2 length of fibres which only appear to add strength to the black strap. Additionally, and presumably to record any deliberate cutting of the strap, runs what appears to be a 10-or-so core fibre optic cable which pulses roughly every 1/2 second. Each ankle device has a serial number and a telephone number imprinted on it, should one need to contact the control room.See also
- Ankle monitorAnkle monitorAn ankle monitor is a device that individuals under house arrest are often required to wear. At timed intervals, the ankle monitor sends a radio frequency signal containing location and other information to a receiver. If an offender moves outside of an allowed range, the police will be notified...
- Automatic vehicle locationAutomatic vehicle locationAutomatic vehicle location is a means for automatically determining the geographic location of a vehicle and transmitting the information to a requester....
- Local Positioning SystemsLocal Positioning SystemsA local positioning system is a navigation system that provides location information in all weather, anywhere within the coverage of the network, where there is an unobstructed line of sight to three or more signaling beacons of which the exact position on earth is known...
- Global Positioning SystemGlobal Positioning SystemThe Global Positioning System is a space-based global navigation satellite system that provides location and time information in all weather, anywhere on or near the Earth, where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites...
- GPS trackingGPS trackingA GPS tracking unit is a device that uses the Global Positioning System to determine the precise location of a vehicle, person, or other asset to which it is attached and to record the position of the asset at regular intervals...
- RFID
- SupranetSupranetSupranet is a term coined at the turn of the 21st century by information technology analysis firm Gartner to describe the fusion of the physical and the digital worlds.-History:...
- Continuous transdermal alcohol monitoring
External links
- BI Incorporated - Leading the Way
- Brazil awards the first GPS Monitoring of offenders contract to support early release programme
- BBC Article on tracking violent offenders due for release 18th August 2010
- Electronic Monitoring and Tracking using Local Positioning Systems
- Monitoring for abusive offenders and alcohol/drug abusers Ankle Bracelets - Ignition Interlock
- Tag 'too bulky' for bail woman at BBC NewsBBC NewsBBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
, 10 November 2005 - Group 4 Securicor on Electronic Tagging, G4S is contracted by the Home Office to monitor offenders
- National Probation Service official website