Most Common Electronic Monitoring Devices
Electronic Monitoring Devices are commonly used to track the location of criminal offenders. Restricting a criminal to a specific area and monitoring their compliance is less expensive than keeping an offender in prison. Electronic monitoring, which us typically done by attaching a monitoring device to the person's ankle, is commonly used when an offender is on parole or under house arrest.
SCRAM Bracelet
SCRAM stands for Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor and is a CAM (Continuous Alcohol Monitoring) device. The scram bracelet is fixed to the ankle and monitors the perspiration of the wearer every thirty minutes to test for alcohol. The device was designed to distinguish between alcohol ingested and alcohol applied topically as an ingredient in things such as lotions. The SCRAM transmits the data through a home or office based modem to a web application where it can be reviewed online. It can detect tampering and can provide detailed graphs of the wearer's temperature and alcohol consumption over time.
Passive Tracking Tether
The most common and most inexpensive monitoring system is a passive tracking tether, which is an ankle bracelet uses a GPS system to track and record the offender's movements. The information is sent to a portable recording device that is placed in a cradle once a day to transmit the information over a telephone line to the parole officer. This method doesn't allow for constant monitoring, but is useful in cases in which the offenders movements have been restricted, such as when someone is allowed to go to work or school only. These are also commonly used for people who are under house arrest.
Active Tracking Tether
In 2005 Massachusetts began a GPS Monitoring Program designed specifically to track sex offenders. Unlike passive monitoring systems, a GPS monitor can track the exact location of the wearer at all times. The system is designed to alert the offender's parole officer when the wearer crosses into a restricted zone, such as a school or playground. The parole officer then contacts the wearer to request that they change location or find out why they traveled into the zone. If they do not comply with the officer, a warrant for their arrest is issued.
Tags: commonly used, Electronic Monitoring Devices, Monitoring Devices, parole officer, Common Electronic