An ankle bracelet may be your required fashion choice in 2022 if you are either a repeat substance abuser or high-risk sex offender.
The bracelet detects levels of drugs or alcohol in the user’s system and alarms law enforcers, bringing them to the offender’s location by GPS (global positioning device).
Sexual offenders in some communities are required to live communally in one apartment complex where their daily behavior is constantly monitored. Others, depending on the court’s evaluation, are required to wear the ankle bracelet monitored by GPS which provides police a minute by minute tracking of activities. Restrictions can be programmed limiting the wearer from any proximity to playgrounds, swimming pools or other community locations where children or families may congregate.
Photo courtesy of VOX.com
The question is whether all high-risk offenders should wear monitoring anklets? Some citizens believe all 14,000 convicted sex offenders should be required to wear the bracelets. Each person would have her/his bracelet programmed for specific locations and breaching that would alarm monitors who would send law enforcers to locate the offender, which, given its software specifics, is easily.
Maintenance is a factor with the rechargeable device. If the battery dies, the device has to be replaced. It can not be submersed in water, so the wearer can’t take a bath, but showers do not affect its function. Daily, the user must transmit the bracelet’s data via a phone modem to the monitoring agency. If any variance to the restrictions is detected, law enforcers arrive, ditto if the uploading is missed.
Law enforcers admit the device is not foolproof but it does move monitoring to a much higher level than has been previously available.