Office for National Statistics
What’s the Maker of Post-it Notes Doing in the Ankle Monitor Business? Struggling
Article

What’s the Maker of Post-it Notes Doing in the Ankle Monitor Business? Struggling

Technology glitches are putting people in jail and driving law enforcement crazy.

Lauren Etter
Bloomberg Businessweek , 2017
Read the article

Read or listen offline

Amazon Kindle
automatisch generiertes Audio
  • 0.5×
  • 0.75×
  • 1×
  • 1.25×
  • 1.5×
  • 1.75×
1×
automatisch generiertes Audio

Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Eye Opening
  • Background

Recommendation

Electronic ankle monitors are a cost-effective way for corrections agencies to free up jail space and save incarceration costs. The offender-monitoring business is also a lucrative industry – but as Post-it note maker 3M found out, the stakes are unusually high when technological glitches result in civil liberties violations and wrongful arrests. Bloomberg News reporter Lauren Etter lays out, 3M’s debut in the offender-monitoring business has gotten off to a rocky start. getAbstract recommends Etter’s piece to tech industry insiders and law enforcement professionals. 

Summary

The market for electronic ankle monitors – currently worth about $6 billion – is growing. Corrections agencies and police departments around the world use or plan to use GPS-enabled ankle bracelets to monitor parolees, people awaiting trial, registered sex offenders, asylum seekers and suspected terrorists. Besides enhancing public safety, the devices help reduce the costs of incarceration. Advocates maintain that the bracelets allow defendants to go about their daily lives, keep their jobs and remain integrated in society.  

In 2010, the Fortune 100 company 3M, best known for making Post-it notes and Scotch...

About the Author

Lauren Etter is a reporter at Bloomberg News.

Comment on this summary or Diskussion beginnen