Tracking Sex Offenders With GPS Isn't A Bulletproof Solution
from the panacea? dept
A 13-year-old girl in Washington was killed last month by a registered sex offender who was being monitored with a GPS tracking device. The tragedy illustrates how such tracking devices -- whether fitted to criminals or children -- aren't magic bullets that offer total protection. In this case, the GPS device helped police corroborate the killer's confession, but it didn't stop the crime. He was being tracked passively, not in real-time, but even if he were, the fact that he was in a field wouldn't have helped anyone notice that he was trying to rape, and then killing, the girl. The devices may prove useful from an evidence standpoint, but that's only after a crime is committed. Perhaps part of the intention is that they'll also act as a deterrent, though sadly that wasn't any help in this case. Whatever the intention, it's important to remember that the devices themselves really don't offer much protection, and shouldn't be viewed as standalone solutions to preventing crime.![Hide This Hide this](https://ii.techdirt.com/s/t/i/topclose.png)
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...queue Minority report.
The fact that this person was a sex offender and wasn't locked up means that the judge involved in his previous case thought that he was low risk enough. That judge was wrong in this particular case. But hindsight is always 20/20.
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The problem with this technology is...
Had the GPS bracelet had a bluetooth receiver and the child's clothing had a bluetooth chirper sewn in, then the Sex offender's bracelet could have called the police once the child chirper had been in proximity for two solid minutes. The police could know the offender's name and address, the child's name and address and the location of where they we both together in seconds.
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Re: The problem with this technology is...
Good idea, but realistically speaking? Not the best solution. I'm thinking "Helicopter mother" syndrom.
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From the technological point of view, i think the better thing would be to use some bodyheat, heartbeat, brainwave sensors on the criminal's body, which are connected to this GPS-detector, so that they would react on a physiological pattern indicating that the guy is probably doing something wrong. It's obvious, that if you're raping and killing someone, your pulse would go high and some other detectable body parameters would change. And with technology like polygraphs and lie-detectors it is absolutely possible to create a "killer pattern", that would activate panic button at the police station, when the guy is involved in some suspicious action. The polygraph detectors works with much more subtle body reactions, and they're known to be quite accurate. And even if there would be some false reactions, i think it's better for a known sex-offender to be disturbed by police than for hundreds of kids to be wired with Bluetooth collars and living in a permanent fear to be raped and molested.
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Gesh
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So, you are saying that it was her fault.
Nice.
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Her fault? Not exactally, but she DID put herself in danger, a danger that she was warned about.
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The disconnect is instructive
#6 - not sure if you are writing tongue in cheek, but I am a fan of the concept that criminal justice should focus on "guardians," things that reduce propensity toward crime when they are near. A "mom" can be a guardian, as can a streetlight. People also ought to understand the concept too, as a means of staying safer.
Regardless, it's a horrible crime and wrong to blame the victim. How many of us weren't reckless teenagers?
I worry that #2 is right and sex crimes are too caught up in election politics and ill-fitting constitutional jurisprudence. More behavioral science and common sense is needed to begin to prevent them more effectively.
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Panacea?
Nobody. Nice fucking straw man.
Does Mike Masnick require that anyone writing for Techdirt make as comically bad arguments as he does?
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Re: Panacea?
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Re: Re: Panacea?
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low-tech, but bulletproof
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Someone is going to cry cruel and unusual punishment at that, but I say it fits the crime perfectly, is less cruel than rape, and isn't the unusual for guys to lose their balls in accidents, because of cancer, or from a rather effective kick from the rape victim.
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Ummm, are there any female violent sex offenders ?
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"Licy's family had reason to be cautious. Hager was raped twice as a teen and Licy's grandmother was kidnapped as a child, Hager said, so the family was extra vigilant with Licy and Hager's young daughters."
someone should study them to find out why they attract predators.
As far as Pedifiles go they either need to be killed or locked up for life. I perfer killed... This whole okay you've done your time but we are going to make the rest of your life a living hell by pinning a scarlet letter on you, that just waste my tax money is crap.
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Tracking in Probation...
The GPS units are pretty much only for that. So that if he is going places he shouldn't be, you can revoke his probation and put him back into jail. They are also very expensive systems and a pain in the butt to keep up w/, that's why we never went to it.
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GPS tracking of criminals
The quote I object to is: "Whatever the intention, it's important to remember that the devices themselves really don't offer much protection, and shouldn't be viewed as standalone solutions to preventing crime."
Hello! It failed ONE time, and we are to make a final judgement? Give me a BREAK! Devices such as this MAY OR MAY NOT "offer much protection"; we can't tell from a single case! Certainly they don't offer absolute protection, but implying that we should discard the technology because it failed once is like getting rid of autos because they sometimes are involved in fatalities! OOPS! With global warming maybe getting rid of autos IS a good idea!
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gps tracker
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priorities
Some were alone the way this time in history has place more importance on sex offenders than on murder. Examples: drug dealer, gangs, drunk drivers, risky employers, medical field, and manufactures. The focus on the child is beginning to make me sick. My opinion, this allows one to focus on someone else rather than themselves. Personal responsibility is fading and being replaced with coherency and delusional thinking. In hard times the population needs a common fear, what is more sensitive than ones children, and how any of us don’t even think before we say, I’ll kill him if anything happens to my child? Response or reaction?
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convicted murderer
We have 2 state prisons & a Federal prison in the county so we entertain prison families & released felons as it is... but now the state wants to use us as a dumping ground for a convicted serial killer and tell us it's safe because he's wearing a GPS?? I think NOT!!
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