GPS Tracking ROI

GPS keeps tabs on Gerlach

By MIA SIMPSON/mia.simpson@austindailyherald.com

Terms of release were changed yesterday for Brownsdale (MN) resident David Andrew Gerlach, 49, who spent the weekend in jail after being tracked by his GPS system driving around following a visit with a probation officer in Rochester.
He had posted $100,000 conditional bail in Mower County following sex crime charges filed Aug. 1 that included 12 counts of criminal sexual misconduct in the 1st degree, four counts of criminal sexual conduct in the 2nd degree and felony burglary.

The complaint alleges that from 1993 to 2001 Gerlach molested a boy, starting when the boy was 8 years old.

The eight-year-old boy doesn’t know who he is, but he, his parents and I are all happy the Mower County Minnesota cares enough to “get over” the nonsense that GPS tracking of suspects and criminals is too expensive and smart enough to get to the bottom line …. it doesn’t cost it pays to track these folks.

Now, what was the guy in question doing, driving around?  In the full child molester story from the Austin Herald, his somewhat less than inspiring defense attorney mumbled an fumbled through a half-baked excuse about taking the quickest route home versus the fastest route.  Since the inner workings of molesters of children are not well known to us, perhaps the lawyer was right.  But perhaps the serial predator was cruising for another victim … probably had a successful meeting with his parole officer and was looking to put a pleasant “cap” on a lovely summer afternoon.

The number one reason that every violent crime suspect or inmate should be tracked is public safety.  Especially sexual child predators and violent  wife-beater threats.  But cities, counties and states are so programmed to cry poor mouth at every opportunity that they frequently pout dollars and cents before victim safety.

The truth of the matter is that GPS tracking criminals pats off.  There is a positive rate of return (ROI) in using the technology.

• It saves money over actual incarceration.  Big money.
• It leverages the efforts of law enforcement.  They don’t need to sit and watch those who are obeying their court orders.
• preventing a crime always coasts a lot less in dollars and cents than investigating, arresting and trying the case that results from actual crime committed.

So if you work in law enforcement … or you are interested in seeing better law enforcement in your community … learn to add two plus two.

MONTREAL, QUEBEC — (MARKET WIRE) — 03/13/07 — In the early morning of February 12th a Vigil client awoke in horror to realize his beloved 2003 Toyota Rav4 had been stolen from right out front of his home. Within seconds the client was in contact with Vigil’s ULC approved monitoring center, Protectron. The vehicle was swiftly located with pin-point accuracy using Vigil’s state of the art GPS/GSM technology and the police where quickly dispatched to recover the vehicle. The Rav4 was tracked to a location in Sainte Sophie where the vehicle was recovered and 7 other stolen vehicles where discovered. Amongst the vehicles found where 5 Toyota Camry’s, 1 Mazda Tribute and another Toyota Rav4. Estimated value of the recovery was over $180,000.But that’s not the end of the story!

Feb 15, 2007 - Lightning struck once again. From inside his office the Vigil client could see that something was awry, he realized that instead of his Rav4, there was an unknown truck parked in his assigned parking space. Once again with the help of Protectron and Marc Ethier, Vigil’s vehicle theft recovery specialist, the vehicle was recovered in less than 30 minutes. Read the Sys-Con Media story here:

I’ve written a few times before about how GPS tracking is making it easier for police to crack down on the worthless slugs who make their living invading our privacy and making us feel much less secure in or lives by stealing our property. maybe when someone steals your car from your parking space you aren’t in any physical danger, but the very act makes you feel used, helpless and “creepy” … it’s like someone bringing the network TV cameras into the bathroom for an interview while you’re sitting on the pot … yuk! (more…)

Can’t resist. here’s another “Stupid Criminal” story where GPS (and smart thinking by the police) saved the day:

Investigators in Kittitas County say a stolen car equipped with the OnStar GPS system helped detectives crack theft ring.

Undersheriff Clayton Meyers said that over the last two months burglars have hit many vacation homes in the area, taking metal cable from power lines and stealing property from inside the houses.

On Wednesday morning, Meyers said a resident on Augusta Drive noticed his neighbor’s garage door open and car missing. The owner was travelling out of state at the time, so the man called police.

Meyers said the home had been burglarized and detectives learned that the stolen car had an OnStar tracking device installed. Investigators used the car’s OnStar system to track it to a storage unit in Auburn.

Police found the burglary suspects trying to rent a storage unit and arrested them. Officers were led to a motel room connected to the suspects and found stolen property from several of the other Kittitas County burglaries, Meyers said.

“This was a tremendous break in our cases,” Meyers said in a statement, “and it illustrates how technology continues to aid in public safety.”

Indeed. Having spent many years of my life living in rural areas I know that normal police patrol methods to catch crooks don’t always work very well. There is a lot of ground to cover and far too few police and sheriff’s deputies to cover it. Home invasion crumb-bums like these bright sparks of hope in the article know it too. Don’t rob banks, you’re almost certain to get caught. Just rip off people when they are away, safe, simple and almost fool proof … these sorts of crimes are rarely solved.

But thanks to OnStar there’s one less gang of cowards preying on people just because those folks decided not to live in the big city.

Hopefully, these criminals, when they get out of jail, will seriously consider getting a job like normal folks. But if they go back to their life of crime, do you think they’ll check on the GPS status of what they steal? Perhaps someone would like to comment on how the privacy rights of these low-life’s were violated?

We’ve all seen perhaps hundred of exciting or funny or tragic scenes from police car viseo cameras by now. These are a great technology, but the implementation often … to put it into precise technical terms … sucks.

You don’t want yet another box in the patrol vehicle, taking up more and more room and amerage. You don’t want megabytes worth of video, day after day, sitting in a tape vault or on a hard drive and no way to fin dit. You don’t want video of such poor quality it doesn’t protect the officer from unfair abuse charges or doen’t convict the criminal becuase the jury can’t tell what’s happening through the “snow”. This box fits in the standard Am’FM dash radio slot and it is the best I have seen so far for integrating into the real-world law enforcement mission. (more…)

I’m not a lawyer and I don’t have a lot of experience in court.  But one thing I do know is, when the judge leans down from the bench and calls you a “moron” things aren’t going well.

Two Massachusetts men are being held on $100,000 bonds each after, police say, they stole multiple GPS tracking systems that subsequently led investigating officers back down a trail of burglarized cars…. Arresting officers found six additional GPS systems in the men’s car, and were able to use four of those systems to trace them back to their home addresses and last active locations, the warrant stated….
“They’ve got a chip in them. I like that,” Norko said to Villanueva during his arraignment. “Morons.”
Each of the four systems traced itself back to addresses in Manchester that had recently reported similar vehicle burglaries, according to the arrest warrant.
The men, however, told investigating officers that while they had indeed stolen a system from the car outside the Super 8, they had bought the other systems from a man on the street for $300 cash. (as in we’re not thieves, we just receive stolen property … Morons again, ed.)  Read the full article about self-convicting criminals here.

These stories are becoming more and more common.  I probably should stop writing about them but they amuse me so much I find it hard to pass them up.  There are a lot of long nights and hard days in law enforcement work, and unlike the movies it is often a long, tough slog without a lot of rewards or even closure at the end of the trail.

But GPS is quickly becoming a tool almost as good as the deleted files on a pedophile’s hard drive to make police work just a little easier and more effective.

Offender GPS Tracking that works. Here’s a great article from the Desert News (Salt Lake City area) that explains how one jurisdiction is using offender GPS tracking effectively, making it work and getting a rate of return both in dollars and cents as well as the intangible (but priceless) knowledge that crimes and/or preliminary criminal activity is being controlled.

We’ve written here more than once about a number of these programs, the good, the bad and the downright ugly. (see the category tab or use our brand new and useful full Archives page … tab at top of every page).

GPS tracking of criminals, parolees and individuals on court-order geographic area limits can and does work. When done right it can work very well. But it is no cure-all. It can not be done successfully without planning, investment of the proper amount of resources and hands-on supervision of the program.

If you’re thinking along the lines of implementing offender GPS tracking here are a couple of the most important things to keep in mind:

• Plan: What, specifically are you going to expect the system to do? GPS tracking is a tool, but it is not magic. It can not eliminate criminal behavior, it can’t change the mindset of a sick pedophile and it can’t control a deranged husband’s impulses.
• Publicize: How will you present the project to the average citizen (tax payer) and the specialized law enforcement, correctional custody and probationary experts who will have to use the system if it is to be anything more than a toy?
• Procure: Once you have decided you are going to be entering into this “new wave” off offender management, how will you decide what to buy and how much to pay for it? Hint the company whom you ask for information from is NOT the company to write the specifications for your system. I’ve consulted on many, many GPS procurements … often long after the source has been selected and by far the number one problem area has been that the user wrote a half-baked RFP and got, in return (big surprise) a half-baked product.
• Promulgate Policy: One of the hardest things to mange in these systems is not any of the technical details … it is the differing expectations various users and client hold. No GPS vendor is qualified to write city, country or state policy or the use of a system like this. The policy guidelines should, indeed must, be written by those in authority … they are separate and distinct from technical manuals and user guides that deal with the operation of the system itself. Fail here and the whole system is worthless.
• Program: Who will manage the implementation of the system from the day the first units arrive until all persons are trained and confident in using the system? In my own experience I have seen a lot of government entities handle a GS tracker the same as handling a new overhead door opener contract. You can not expect the vendor to install the system, train a few folks and then walk away. Even with a good vendor you won’t get all you need and with a bad vendor???
• Persevere: None of these systems ate “fire and forget” devices. There must be a local “daddy rabbit”who cares about the system, highlights the good points, takes corrective action on the bad points and keeps his/her finger on the pulse. If you have such a person on board, great. If you don’t, then you have just identified the single most important issue in building and capitalizing on a great system.

It isn’t the money and it isn’t the technology that will make or break your program, it is the people. It has been said that there are “six “P’s” that prevent “Piss Poor Performance”. I just gave you seven, by my count … let me know what you think.

By REBECCA PANOFF
rebecca.panoff@scripps.com
May 23, 2007

FORT PIERCE — Two days after a defendant on the county’s satellite tracking system pre-trial program was arrested in Palm Beach County on charges of exposing himself, St. Lucie County commissioners terminated their contract with the company that provides the service.

The termination comes after an audit into Sentencing Alternatives, which was paid $18 a day per participant in the GPS program, found many problems with how the company was managing cases. According to the preliminary audit by consultant Jeffrey Kilpatrick, problems included a defendant who took off his GPS bracelet and ran away but the violation wasn’t reported to the court until 10 days later, a defendant who tested positive for cocaine, broke curfew rules and wasn’t taken off the program and a defendant who offered an officer $5,000 to overlook curfew rules and the bribe was never reported…. read the rest of the article about the failure of the prisoner management contract here:

Rebecca Panoff wrote a pretty well researched article here about the failure of an initiative Saint Lucie County, Florida has been trying.  The county was attempting to save dollars for the taxpayer by hiring a commercial firm, known as Sentencing Alternatives, to manage offenders on an “out patient” basis for a flat daily rate.  Part of the program included using GPS Tracking bracelets to keep track of where the subjects were.  The company, according to the published report, did not execute the terms of their contract properly.  A number of grievous errors were reported including neglecting to report missing prisoners for days at a time and failing to report bribes.  These are gross failures to perform and the county did the right thing by refusing to do business with a company who doesn’t seem capable of performing up to standards.

Rebecca did the legwork and the writing, I’m sure one or more of her editors proofread and possibly “massaged” the story to get it into final form, and ten it went to the headline writer.  Why isn’t the story slugged with words that indicate the actual situation.  A county vendor failed and the county took action.

The contract in question is only a “GPS” contract in the sense that the vendor was allowed to use the technology.  The GPS didn’t fail, in fact nothing in the story indicates that problems with GPS itself had anything to do with the issues.  If I leased a Chevrolet and put a contract officer in the patrol car, and he filed to do his duty, I’d cancel the Chevrolet contract?  Nothing was wrong with the car, the fault was in how it was being used.

You’ve read here before and I don’t doubt you will again … GPS is a tool.  Law enforcement is both a science and a bit of an art.  Strapping a 9mm Glock on a person’s hip does not make him or her a law enforcement officer.  Handing them GPS bracelets and letting them fumble about with them does not make them offender managers either. 

If you are thinking of using GPS as part of your incarceration program, great, I think you should.  But remember that GPS is still just a tool, it can not make up for bad management and neglect … and as a personal favor to me, don’t blame the tool for the lousy work the carpenter did, ok?