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Director proposes $15,700 GPS/phone-based monitoring pilot to ease jail overcrowding
Summary
Director Weber told the commission he found an affordable GPS/biometric phone-based monitoring option to expand pretrial supervision; the $15,700 request would fund a one-year trial and is expected to be offset partly by supervision fees paid by participants.
Director Weber presented a proposal to fund a year-long pilot of a GPS- and biometrics-enabled phone-based supervision system intended to expand pretrial monitoring and relieve jail overcrowding.
"Every one of these folks is still innocent. They're not guilty. They have to be proven guilty," Weber (speaker 6) said while explaining the county's effort to balance pretrial supervision and presumption of innocence. He told commissioners that about 162 people in the county jail could be eligible for pretrial release under expanded monitoring but cautioned judges and case-by-case variables would affect actual numbers.
Weber described the vendor's technology as a phone-based GPS system with passive background monitoring, periodic biometric check-ins and three to 10 daily touchpoints in addition to officer check-ins. He said the program could cover roughly 300 people for about $22,500 a year at scale and estimated the county pilot would cost about $15,700 for software and officer tablets. Weber also said supervision fees paid by participants could defray much of the ongoing cost.
Commissioners asked about vendor experience and coverage in low-connectivity areas; Weber said the company is used by other Alabama counties and that the system uses major cellular carriers with data backlogs that update when signal returns. He also noted jurisdictional limits if a participant crosses the Florida or Georgia border; the county could request a warrant but practical enforcement is constrained.
Chair (speaker 8) thanked Weber for exploring options and said the pilot is worth trying to relieve jail pressure; commissioners voiced support and had no objection to placing the item on the agenda.
