Electronic tagging

Electronic tagging is a form of surveillance which uses an electronic device, fitted to the person. In some jurisdictions an electronic tag fitted above the ankle is used for people as part of their bail or probation conditions. It is also used in healthcare settings and in immigration contexts in some jurisdictions. Electronic tagging can be used in combination with the global positioning system (GPS). For short-range monitoring of a person that wears an electronic tag radio frequency technology is used. The electronic monitoring of humans found its first commercial applications in the 1980s. Portable transceivers that could record the location of volunteers, were first developed by a group of researchers at Harvard University in the early 1960s. The researchers cited the psychological perspective of B. F. Skinner as underpinning for their academic project. The portable electronic tag was called behavior transmitter-reinforcer and could transmit data two-ways between a base station and a volunteer who simulated a young adult offender. Messages were supposed to be sent to the tag, so as to provide feedback to the young offender and thus assist in rehabilitation. The head of this research project was Ralph Kirkland Schwitzgebel. Reviews of the prototype electronic tagging strategy were critical. In 1966 the Harvard Law Review ridiculed the electronic tags as Schwitzgebel Machine and a myth emerged, according to which the prototype electronic tagging project used brain implants and transmitted verbal instructions to volunteers. Laurence Tribe in 1973 published information on the failed attempts by those involved in the project to find a commercial application for electronic tagging. In the United States, the 1970s saw an end of rehabilitative sentencing, including for example discretionary parole release. Those found guilty of a criminal offense were send to prison, leading to sudden increase in the prison population. Probation became more common, as judges saw the potential of electronic tagging, leading to an increasing emphasis on surveillance. Advances in computer aided technology made offender monitoring feasible and affordable. After all, the Schwitzgebel prototype had been built out of surplus missile tracking equipment. In 1982 the NIMCOS company built several credit card sized transmitters that could be strapped onto an ankle. The electronic ankle tag transmitted a radio signal every 60 seconds, which could be picked up by a receiver that was no more than 45 meters away from the electronic tag. The receiver could be connected to a telephone, so that the data from the electronic ankle tag could be send to a mainframe computer. The design aim of the electronic tag was the reporting of a potential home detention breach. In 1983 judge Jack Love in a state district court imposed home curfew on three offenders who had been sentenced to probation. The home detention was a probation condition and entailed 30 days of electronic monitoring at home. The NIMCOS electronic ankle tag was trialed on those three probationers, two of which re-offended, so the goal of home confinement was satisfied but the aim of reducing crime through probation was not. The use of electronic monitoring in medical practice, especially as it relates to the tagging of the elderly and people with dementia, is capable of generating controversy, and media attention. Elderly people in care homes can be tagged with the same electronic monitors used to keep track of young offenders. For persons suffering from dementia, electronic monitoring might be beneficially used to prevent them from wandering away. The controversy in its medical use relates to two arguments, one as to the safety of the patients, and the other, as to their privacy and human rights. At over 40 percent, there is a high prevalence of wandering among patients with dementia. Of the several methods deployed to keep them from wandering, it is reported that 44 percent of wanderers with dementia have been kept behind closed doors at some point. Other solutions have included constant surveillance, use of makeshift alarms and, the use of various drugs that carry the risk of adverse effects. On an iPhone, 'Location Services' allows location-based apps and websites (including Maps, Camera, Safari, and other Apple and third-party apps) to use information from Global Positioning System (GPS) networks to determine your approximate location. A company in Japan has created GPS enabled uniforms and backpacks. School children in distress would be able to hit a button, immediately summoning a security agent to their location. Other similar applications in the U.S. have included mobile phones enabled with GPS tracking, to allow parents to track their school children.