Missoula companies demonstrate technology to keep track of offenders
By TYLER CHRISTENSEN of the Missoulian

The Montana Department of Corrections is faced with the daunting task of supervising 12,000 offenders, more than 8,000 of which are under intensive supervision outside of prison. That means the average probation or parole officer in Montana must keep track of 70 to 100 offenders.

Two Missoula-based technology companies have developed an automated tracking system that could make that task a whole lot easier.

AquilaVision Inc., a local company that specializes in law enforcement solutions, and Invizeon Corp., which specializes in communications solutions, teamed up to develop a new program that allows authorities to monitor offenders around the clock - and instantly alerts law enforcement of violations.

Bill Slaughter, former director of the Montana Department of Corrections and current director of public safety initiatives for AquilaVision, demonstrated the system Tuesday during the Missoula Area Economic Development Corp.'s annual awards luncheon.

Electronic monitoring is a reliable, affordable way to enhance public safety and has the potential to become a key corrections tool in Montana, he said. Similar systems are in use in other parts of the country, he added, but his company's is the first designed specifically for use in rural communities.

The new program allows officers to follow an individual offender's movements in real time on an Internet map via an electronic ankle bracelet that emits a signal, Slaughter explained. If the bracelet is tampered with in any way, it triggers an alert that notifies the proper authorities at once.

The system also triggers an alert if offenders go any place they're not supposed to or if they aren't where they're supposed to be when they're supposed to be there. It logs all violations, major and minor, so that parole officers have an indisputable account of offenders' activities to take to court.

The program helps officers organize their caseload, Slaughter said, by flagging violations on a chart listing each offender. Rather than constantly review each offender's activities, officers can simply scan the list for flags.

“We're giving them a tool so they can do their job better,” Slaughter said.

Parole and probation officers can even send messages to offenders, and their tracking device will keep beeping until they push a button to acknowledge they got the message. This sort of thing would be especially helpful in working with addicted offenders, Slaughter said, because they often have to be reminded of their responsibilities over and over again.

For most of Slaughter's 30-year career in law enforcement, his focus was on putting criminals in prison, he said. However, for the last few years of his career his focus shifted to rehabilitating and getting nonviolent offenders out of prison.

Roughly 2.5 million Americans are currently in prison, he noted. The nation's prisons are full and still filling, but rather than add more beds to its prisons, the state of Montana should invest in other corrections options, such as drug courts, mental health courts, drug and alcohol treatment programs - and electronic monitoring systems.

At $15 a day, these systems are affordable, Slaughter said. Furthermore, the offender would be expected to pay that cost, not the taxpayer.

The tracking program has potential applications outside of law enforcement, he added. It could be used in the health-care field to locate patients with Alzheimer's, for instance.

AquilaVision is a tenant in the Montana Technology Enterprise Center, a business incubator supported by the University of Montana and run by the the Missoula Area Economic Development Corp., explained MAEDC president and chief executive officer Dick King.

As part of the awards luncheon, his organization presented DirecTV with its C.P. Higgins Award and Spiker Communications with its Frank Worden Award.

King noted that a recently completed cost-benefit analysis by the Montana Department of Commerce shows the state stands to recoup its $2.8 million investment in the DirecTV project within three years. That return will primarily come in the form of income taxes. As of Tuesday, said site director Mark Caple, DirecTV employs 840 workers at its Missoula call center.