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Get a DUI (Driving under the Influence) citation in Riverside County, California, expect to pay close to $10,000 in attorney's fees, attend and complete substance abuse counseling and if it is your second or greater offense, you may now become the not-so-proud barer of a state-of-the-art ankle bracelet and watch combo, courtesy of the Riverside County Probation Department. Watch your Step®, the
first program of its kind hits high gear in Riverside County this month after a ten month trial period and is designed to monitor repeat drunk driving offenders throughout their probation with a combination ankle bracelet and watch accessory. The ankle bracelet, similar to those used on persons under house arrest monitors the offender's body sweat for traces of alcohol. The watch, worn around the wrists contains a global positioning device which allows probation officers and local police to pinpoint the location of the offender 24/7 and arrest them for
violation of their probation should alcohol be detected by the ankle bracelet. Should the offender attempt to remove the bracelet, insert and object in front of the sensor or block transmission, a tamper alert quickly transmits to a local monitoring station and the device immediately increases its sampling frequency.
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For high-risk offenders, those who are prohibited from entering clubs and bars or under house arrest as part of their probation, both the watch and ankle bracelets will be used. To assist in
monitoring offenders, police and probation officials drafted designated "off limits" areas for offenders during specific time periods including bars, casinos and nightclubs. Should an offender venture into a forbidden area, the GPS alarm alerts the monitoring stations which use web based programs to document the violation and/or dispatch police. |
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Alcohol Monitoring Systems' ankle bracelet for DUI offenders.
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Made possible by a $600,000 grant, the device, manufactured by Alcohol Monitoring Systems Inc weighs about eight ounces, is water resistant and can be hidden under pant legs. Women wearing skirts or shorts will not be able to hide it, making public humiliation of offenders in careers requiring such dress unavoidable. Of the 120 persons currently on probation for DUI offenses in Riverside County, 50% are considered high risk for re-offending.
How it works Alcohol is eliminated from the body by two mechanisms: metabolism and excretion. Metabolism accounts for greater than 90% of ingested alcohol and occurs principally in the liver. The remaining 10% of ingested alcohol is excreted, unchanged, wherever water is removed from the body—breath, urine, perspiration, and saliva. The excreted alcohol is significant because it can be measured and correlated to a person’s Blood Alcohol Content.
Utilizing the science of Transdermal Alcohol Testing, sensors determine a person’s blood alcohol content (BAC) via insensible perspiration. This secretion is the constant, unnoticeable excretion of sweat through the skin, and the average person will emit approximately one liter of insensible perspiration each day. The device measures the ethanol in this insensible perspiration - a byproduct of alcohol consumption—in order to determine a person’s level of intoxication
Civil Rights Violation? Ultimately the question comes up, isn't this a violation of a person's right to privacy? Yes and no. "Basically, you sign away your rights when you go on probation," states Gordon Cox, supervising deputy public defender of the Southwest Justice Center in French Valley, California. Part of the probation agreement for convicted drunk drivers includes being subjected to random drug tests at anytime or anyplace. The ankle bracelets allow this
reality multiple times a day. Yet even with offenders arbitrarily agreeing to this as a condition of probation, Americans will be wise to remain vigilant. Global positioning devices may be used for good, but they can also be used to control society at large and for social engineering. This device is removable, yet efforts are underway to insert subdermal GPS chips into the homeless, vagrants and in Europe, Euros to prevent their use in "illegal activities". Subdermal chips have already been implanted in
legal workers within
parts of Mexico. US Passports will soon contain Radio Frequency Chips in the United States. For every positive use, ten opportunities for misuse and abuse exist. Misuse constitutes the interference by criminals tapping into frequencies, the unscrupulous selling of information by insiders to interested parties or creating situations allowing for the monitoring of groups, persons or segments of society based upon criterion "for their own good" such as children…to keep them safe from predators we may be told.
Who Gets Monitored? The people indoctrinated into this program are not your onetime DUI offenders who maybe had two drinks at a party and didn't wait an hour to drive home before getting snared in a roadside check. When the DUI threshold is set at 0.08%, most adults under 150 pounds will register "drunk" on just one drink with no food. This program is not for that offender. Those targeted for this program constitute multiple felony
drunk driving convictions and have shown through their behavior to be at a high risk of re-offending, likely alcoholic and unable to control themselves once they start drinking and are on probation. Who receives a bracelet or bracelet watch combo depends on past convictions or the severity of the conviction. For example, a person with a 2.0 blood alcohol content, due to the saturation even if it is a first time offense, may be considered. Also those involved in accidents, hit and run or reckless driving violations while under the influence are prime candidates.
The Watch Your Step program continues through December 2006 in Riverside County. Other counties including neighboring San Bernardino and others across the country are monitoring this program. As it is less expensive than one-on-one monitoring or jail time, if it is successful this program may become the norm nationwide. Drugs, Alcohol and Domestic Violence
Probation departments in Tennessee, Florida, and Georgia will also be using a similar device. Referred to as SCRAM (Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor) in these states, the product to monitors multiple-DUI offenders, Drug Court participants, and domestic violence offenders. On the market for just 18 months, SCRAM through testing has conducted over 12 million alcohol tests on 6,200 offenders. The system is currently in use in 28 states and more than 250 courts and agencies across the U.S. |
