Desperate parents are paying a Tampa company to put Ankle Monitors — the kind usually ordered for people on house arrest — on their wayward teenagers, reports Jared Gilmour in the Miami Herald.
Tampa Bay Monitoring in Clearwater, Florida, began leasing GPS Ankle bracelets for use on teens three years ago, owner Frank Kopczynski told reporters. Parents pay $10 a day.
. . . Kopczynski said 95 percent of the parents who ask for ankle monitors are “desperate” and “about ready to pull their hair out” over concerns their teens will run away, get involved in drugs or fall victim to human trafficking.
In addition to tracking teens, the bracelets provide two-way communications.
“We can have the bracelet buzz” if a child isn’t home by curfew, Kopczynski explained. “If they ignore that, we can get on the two-way and say, ‘Listen, Bubba, mom and dad set a 10:00 curfew. It’s 10:15. You need to get your butt off that corner and get back home.’ ”
Removing the ankle bracelets requires specialized tools: The bracelet alerts the monitoring company if the wearer tries to saw it off. “Most people — we’re talking hardened criminals who try to cut it off — have ended up in the ER,” Kopczynski said.
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