Burglars Opt For House Arrest With GPS Tracking
Personal GPS Trackers Provide Prison Population Solution
The City of Santa Fe, NM introduced a new system designed to track convicted burglars by utilizing personal GPS trackers rather than putting them in jail. The Santa Fe Police began tracking the first offender last week. This new program will start with just five GPS tracking systemsin order to gauge its effectiveness and ability to collect data.
According to a report from ABC News, Santa Fe Police Capt. Aric Wheeler, said the idea for the program originated as an alternative to repetitive incarceration, which can get pretty expensive for taxpayers. They also found that jail time did very little to deter these repeat offenders from committing more burglaries.
In fact, Capt. Wheeler said that police often saw an immediate spike in burglaries as soon as the criminals got out of jail. “We can’t arrest our way out of this problem. You have to come up with new and creative ways to deal with them,” Wheeler said.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Doug Couleur said the program targets individuals facing long prison sentences, those with a large number of burglary charges, or criminals who have a juvenile history of burglary. District prosecutors and police will work in conjunction with the offenders’ attorneys to evaluate their cases and see if the their clients should be included in the new GPS monitoring program.
GPS Tracking Program Can Prove Beneficial For Both Sides
Recently, the issue of unwarranted GPS vehicle tracking by law enforcement officials has become a hot button topic. The Supreme Court case involving a convicted drug dealer, who police monitored for a month without obtaining a warrant for the GPS device, has sparked a great deal of debate regarding the issue of an individual’s Fourth Amendment rights. This case eventually resulted in the Supreme Court stating that police had no right gathering evidence with a GPS vehicle tracker unless they first obtained a search warrant.
Regarding this new GPS tracking program, Couleur acknowledged that there are multiple issues that must be agreed to by the defendant in order to uphold the constitutionality of the program. “A person who goes into the program has to specifically consent to it because they waive any issues to unrestricted access to their data by police department,” according to Couleur.
A clause in the program also mandates employment. “They can contribute to society and they have to go out and get a job. We can reintegrate them into the community,” Capt. Wheeler said. “If they truly want to be rehabilitated and they know ‘Big Brother’ is watching them, I’m hoping they will be more reluctant to commit burglaries again.”
The GPS ankle bracelets are capable of both passive and real-time tracking . Santa Fe police will track them passively for the most part, however, if there is reason for suspicion, such as multiple burglaries reported in one area, or if a crime fits the monitored burglar’s previous modes of operation, then police can send a request to the GPS device company, to get the real-time, live locations so they can intervene.
The plan, if deemed effective, could become cost-saving option for many cities and states who are struggling fiscally, as it could be a way to alleviate the financial toll often incurred by incarceration. It could also help the problem of jail overcrowding. These issues were major catalysts in initiating the plan in Santa Fe.
Couleur told ABC News, “You can’t put everyone in jails. There is no money for new jails and there are no beds in the jails. There have to be alternatives for jails and this is a pretty good one.” Although still in its preliminary stages, Couleur believes the program has a lot of potential. Only time will tell.