Chicago is Tracking Kids With GPS Monitors That Can Call and Record Them Without Consent - The Appeal

"On March 29, court officials in Chicago strapped an ankle monitor onto Shawn, a 15-year-old awaiting trial on charges of armed robbery. They explained that the device would need to be charged for two hours a day and that it would track his movements using GPS technology. He was told he would have to be given permission to leave his house, even to go to school. But he found out that through his monitor, officers wouldn’t just be able to track his location, as most electronic monitors do. They would also be able to speak—and listen—to him....

Kate Weisburd, a professor at The George Washington University Law School...said jurisdictions often assume individuals ordered to wear a device by a judge have given consent to be monitored, but jurisdictions then extend that consent in problematic ways. “Oftentimes there’s this idea of consent invoked,” she said. “In other words, a young person or an adult has consented to be on a monitor in lieu of being in prison or jail. The problem with that is that consent can’t just be a blanket, carte blanche excuse for any type of privacy invasion. There has to be some limit.” ..."