"GPS monitoring alerts overwhelm probation officers"
By: Paige St. John
Source: Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-ff-gps-overload-20140216,0,1708422.story#axzz2tWC0rzYr
LA Country is currently using the GPS monitoring device to maintain constant supervision on the felons moved out of California keeping track of their location day and night. Despite having an effective plan, an odd problem occurred where the probation officers began receiving up to 1,000 alerts per day involving the felons. The majority of these alerts have been meaningless, those of which being blocked signal or low battery. The frequency of these messages have been so constant that the officers have begun deleting the alerts. Last fall, auditors reviewed the probation officer's job and found more than a dozen situations where the officers failed to realize the devices were out of battery and those on probation were roaming around unsupervised, on some occasions lasting weeks! California's statewide monitoring system for sex offenders receives up to 400,000 alerts each month. Ignoring such messages may leave the citizen's lives at risk as well as the probationer's chances of proving themselves a worthy citizen. In New York officers were overwhelmed by the alerts that they set it to delete themselves after five minutes. Little did they know a man charged with child pornography broke the device's strap and left the monitor at home, going out and raping an innocent ten year old girl and stabbing her mother to death. These cases are beyond horrific to the world and the officers need to take an extreme step toward improving the system and keeping the felons on check.
Hearing about cases like this is disgusting. GPS trackers were created to help officers and instead its faulty nature caused officers to slack off, and it created a "boy who cried wolf" case. The faulty alarms put officers under the impression that all beepings were unimportant and when the police were actually needed, they ignored it. Great topic and informative blog post. Nice work, Shahe!
ReplyDeleteAnother classic case of the Global Positioning System cried wolf. Technology is only as useful as its weakest software, and is therefore susceptible to such faults as leading to the rape of a ten year old girl. Yet, technology is not to blame for the disgusting realities one faces today. It is the loss of structure, effectiveness, and most importantly faith in the rehabilitation of the country. Prison is now one hundred percent punishing and almost zero percent rehabilitating. Even those who have been rehabilitated are labeled as felons for the rest of their lives.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, it’s the probation officers responsibility to keep track of parolees. It is their job to make sure the GPS devices are working properly, and not malfunctioning and sending erroneous alerts. Instead, these probation officers all decided to ignore hundreds of alerts coming in. They all simply turned off their devices and went about their daily business. However, I wonder what their daily business is. Is it not to take care of GPS devices and parolees???
ReplyDeleteThese probation officers used the GPS devices to slack off. Their job is to keep everyone safe and to make sure their equipment is working properly. Since the GPS devices were out of battery, the officers assumed that the alerts, which they were receiving, were false alarms. These officers were irresponsible and ignored all the alerts; while somewhere out there, people needed their help. Great topic, Shahe!
ReplyDeleteThis new regulation to monitor former felons who lived in Los Angeles is ground breaking. Probation officers and all law enforcement officials should take complete advantage of this technology to secure the community. I believe that soon this new and innovate device will be able to drastically change the world.
ReplyDeleteThis would not be the probation officers fault because the devices are the ones clearly causing the problems. The GPS devices should be setup in a new way in order to send proper alerts and correct signals to the probation officers. Having felons roaming around in the city is not safe, because those were the people that at one point in their lives committed a crime that can easily be repeated.
ReplyDeleteAn officer relies on not only himself, but also the devices at his grasp. If one of the more important pieces is malfunctioning causing the officer to disregard the alerts. This case clearly shows that because of the officer's carelessness, a horrific crime had occurred. It is the officer's responsibility to make sure that all of his devices are working properly, and if not, he must then repair them.
ReplyDeleteHearing about these cases sickens me. Its terrible how probation officers could just ignore those alerts. The whole point of those alerts is to tell the probation officers that they need to visit the parolee for some reason. Most cases involved a dying battery which is very serious. Once the battery dies on the devices then the parolee can go freely to wherever he wants. They should really get this situation under control because another case where a mother gets murdered and her daughter gets raped should definitely not happen.
ReplyDeleteThis horrific event is truly a jaw dropper in every aspect. How could an officer be so incredibly irresponsible and selfish? They were clearly not thinking about the aftermath of their actions. Ignoring the alerts could have put people's lives in danger, giving the felon complete freedom to disturb the peace. It is truly unfortunate to hear that the little girl and her family were affected in such drastic measures. I hope that something is to be done about this issue. Extremely great job Shahe!
ReplyDelete