FARMINGTON, Utah -- The same ankle bracelet monitoring technology used to keep Davis County jail inmate trustees in-check may soon be made available to caregivers of vulnerable adults.
"The Davis County Sheriff's Office is looking into making ankle monitors available for vulnerable adults," Davis County Sheriff's Sgt. Susan Poulsen said.
The cost to make the ankle bracelets available would be about $4 per day, Poulsen said.
"It's not new technology," she said. "This is just a little bit different take on it."
For years, jail inmates on work release have worn the bracelets.
The only difference would be that the ankle bracelets made available for vulnerable adults -- someone who as a result of a mental condition may have a tendency to wander away from their property or care provider -- would not be activated until the individual was reported missing to authorities, Poulsen said.
"We wouldn't monitor them all the time," she said.
But the ankle bracelets would work off of the same GPS and cellphone tower technology used to keep track of jail inmates working at a location, Poulsen said.
Upon being activated the bracelets would alert law enforcement authorities of the exact location, within a few feet, of a missing person, she said.
The $4 daily charge caregivers would have to pay for the ankle bracelet would be used to cover the sheriff's office expenses of paying for the equipment and coordinating the program, she said.
There is no set date for the program to begin.
"What we are really looking for is interest from the public," Poulsen said.
Copyright 2013 - Standard-Examiner, Ogden, Utah
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
