Slashdot Mirror
GPS-Enabled Criminals In Massachusetts
Fun at LinuxWorld writes "Following on the heels of California's plan to put GPS receivers in cars, Massachusetts wants to fit criminals who violation restraining orders with GPS devices. Wearing the device would be a condition of probation (meaning you can refuse, but then you get to serve your time in jail), and fines and punishments would be imposed if the person entered "restricted zones" (under the terms of the restraining order). With all the reports of GPS being used to restrict the rights of innocent people, is this any better? Will it fix the problem?"
and turn them on as the authorities see fit ... no court order required.
time to go look at EFF and EPIC sites again.
maybe this time I'll actually donate like I've meant to before ...
how do I get my original account back when @home died long ago?
For decades, we have accepted the idea of criminals having ankle bracelets that trigger an alarm if the person leaves the area of their home.
It sounds like using GPS is just a natural extension of this technology that allows them to be more productive, increase safety to those around them until they've proven themselves, and reduce costs by allowing more non-violent offenders a chance to rehabillitate without being as big a burden to the taxpayer (eg, in prison).
If we're really outraged about the use of GPS to track the same folks that would have had a radio-locater alarm bracelet before, then I ASSUME that everyone was just as upset about the pre-existing technology.
Right?
GPS is a tool, and it can be used for good or bad. The same is true for Nuclear Power. There are many in our society that vehemently oppose anything with 'nuclear' or 'atomic' in the name because they have an objection that's more religious then practical. The same is increasingly true with GPS. The funny thing is, many of the people on slashdot who scoff at the anti-nuclear extremists turn around and apply the same standard of evidence to the evils of GPS that their anti-nuke opponents do to atomic energy.
I'm not sure how it is in Massechuses (sp?), but here in Michigan, one can get a restraining order with no proof. The accused can get the order revoked, but its a pain in the ass. More often than not, it degenerates into a "his word against hers" type of case.
You'll note the devices would be for people who have already violated the restraining order. Restraining orders are easy to get in most states, they're also easy for the defendant to not violate them. Don't screw up, don't get a tracking device. Simple.
-73, de n1ywb
www.n1ywb.com
Right now there is little motivation for jamming GPS signals. The occasional terrorist, or the army, might decide to interfere with the signal, but otherwise I suspect there haven't been too many buyers of the GPS jamming system that was being marketed in Russia a few years ago.
... the only reason to use GPS is to know where people are whenever one wants) or by tracking parollees with GPS, we've just given a large population of people a really big incentive to jam GPS signals.
That could all change.
Certainly by tracking citizens in their cars with GPS (ostensibly for taxation purposes, but anyone with any technical knowhow knows you can read an odometer for tax purposes
As a pilot who uses GPL in both IFR and VFR flight, this worries me. Not because I can't fly without it (I can, and have the equipment to do so, though it certainly adds to the workload), but because I may be in the middle of a busy procedure when some jackass decides to jam the signal so he can see his girlfriend in the "forbidden zone", and the odds of losing my signal have just gone up by orders of magnitude thanks to a (perhaps well meaning, but certainly) intrusive big-brother application of the same technology.
I don't argue that tracking convicted criminals with GPS is a legitimate idea. I do argue, however, that it isn't a very good idea, and the unintended consiquences are worrisome.
OBTW - Technically, when one pays a speeding fine, one is "convicted" of the "crime" of "speeding." Does that make GPS monitoring of their car for all future driving a legitimate idea. How many people are going to start jamming the signal simply as a matter of asserting their privacy, and screwing up boat/air navigation at the same time?
This is a boneheaded idea, even if the intention is good.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
In high school there was a classmate of mine that was on probation, or parole or something and he had to wear some type of tracking device around their ankle. At the time I was absolutely appalled by it as all he was charged with was non-violent drug offenses. Why was our government tracking this kid who was not a danger to anybody?
I think that this could be a very useful and progressive technology, provided that the punishment fit the crime. I have been growing increasingly skeptical of the prison system. I really don't think that it provides much deterrence, rehabilitation or punishment that couldn't be provided in some other manner. People who are only hurting themselves should not be criminals at all. Liquidation and seizure of all assets, combined with forced labor (say weekly) would be a much more effective deterrent / punishment for white collar crimes than a prison sentence. The only thing that prison should be reserved for are violent offenders who simply must be removed from society. However, violent offenses vary in severity, and people should be given second chances. I think that this could be very useful in providing a more effective half way step between prison and complete freedom.
On the other hand, every year in this country, penalties for crimes go up. It used to be that there were laws that had been around for generations, and being tough on crime meant punishing people when they broke those laws. When done, the public agreed that justice was served, and that was that. Now every time any big crime hits the news these paranoid soccer moms pop up screaming for harsher punishment. And the politicians happily comply so they look like they are "hard on crime". You can't keep doing this forever - at some point you have to decide that the punishment is right for the crime and leave it!
So yeah, this is definitely a valid tool for law enforcement. However, like any tool it can be used or misused, and I am very reluctant to give law enforcement new tools as long as our political environment is tolerant, encouraging and even demanding of their misuse.
Back in the '20s, alcohol prohibition was an attempt to impose one group's idea of morality on the whole population by law. It was unenforcable (at the time). The attempt to impose it funded the rise of organized crime (and also drove the rise of the BATF, which waged a shooting war on the law-scoffing citizens).
Eventually the government threw in the towel. (And one of the crime kingpins and his children, funded by their laundered money, became major powers in the government. He became an ambassador. One son became president and another his attorney general. A third is a senator and a major figure in his party to this day.)
The government immediately turned around and did the same thing by banning some potentially recreational drugs - starting with two that were popular among a relatively small underclass. Thirty years and a civil-rights movement later the drugs in question were popular among the bulk of a generation. The government's bogus pronouncements about the dangers of THOSE drugs led the citizens to distrust their warnings about ALL drugs and experiment with many others, leading to more bans and tighter enforcement.
The perceived success of "civil disobedience" and "passive resistance" in the cases of alcohol prohibition, civil rights, and oppositon to the Vietnam engagement, led to their use against the unpopular drug bans, as well. The opposition thought massive civil disobedience would overload the police, court, and jail systems, again leading the government to throw in the towel.
But this time the popularity of the banned substances wasn't cross-generational. There was an age gap. The users and their supporters were almost entirely young, while the government was in the hands of their elders (who perceived it as a youth-corrupting evil). So the government did NOT throw in the towel, but pushed harder. By the time the youth (or at least those who had avoided jail) began to achieve positions of power the "drug war" was institutionalized. (And with "bipartisan" support how do you vote against it?)
The overloading of the criminal justice system appeared. But the government worked around it:
The system of plea bargaining was established, slashing the load on the courts.
Drug offenses were prioritized for jail time, producing jail overcrowding, which was "solved" by shortening sentences. But with the mandatory minimums for drug offenses it was the "real" criminals - thieves, burglars, muggers, rapists, murderers - who got out progressively earlier, leading to description of the justice system as a "revolving door".
RICO allowed the siezure of the assets, not just of those CONVICTED, but of those ACCUSED, or even randomly when assets were found. This made the "drug war" self-funding (on the same model as the Spanish Inqisition) and created an incentive for police to ignore "real" crime and go after drug offenses.
A major reason alcohol prohibition was unenforcable was the difficulty of "mining" files for information. But the rise of the drug war occurred during the rise and cost reduction of automated information and surveilance technology, eliminating this impediment.
In a series of positive feedback loops both drug-related and non-drug-related crime have escalated to where the US is the country with the highest percentage of its population in prison or otherwise under government control due to conviction for "crimes".
Meanwhile the government culture now refuses to "throw in the towel" on any failed law. Congress continues to pass more laws, banning more things - some of which are quite as unpopular with the current generations as drug bans were with The Boomers. Cryptography, whistle-blowing, fair use, and reverse engineering (to name just four) are all being criminalized, in the classic salami-slice approach. Meanwhile the drug-law forged legal tools are being
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way