Can GPS Tracking Devices Foil Kidnappings?
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to LandAirSea's RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
NAIROBI, KENYA, Africa – Government officials in Nairobi Province are hoping a high-tech tracking system will help them get a handle on a kidnapping spree that has stretched over the past few years.
A local security firm has offered a solution to criminals running rampant and literally snatching people off the streets. It proposes a universal GPS tracking system in Kenya’s capital.
People in high-risk sections of the city would be issued highly sensitive, yet relatively inexpensive GPS tracking systems. Children could put the main hardware of the tracking device in a pocket or backpack; adults in a purse or briefcase. Each system has a remote handheld with a panic button that the victim could activate when threatened by a kidnapper. The accompanying GPS tracking device would be tripped and a monitor at a main control center could find the individual’s location by Global Positioning System coordinates.
Kenya is a lush land, popular with tourists for safaris. But the U.S. government has issued a travel warning for the country because, for the last decade, it has had a reputation as a volatile and crime-riddled city. Nairobi is notorious for car jackings, armed robberies, burglaries and now kidnappings. Most houses have security measures in place, including burglar gates, guard dogs and sometimes armed guards. Now GPS tracking could be added to the arsenal of defensive tools.
In this poverty-stricken city, where a typical middle- to lower-class citizen earns only a few dollars a day, many are turning to illegal pursuits. Kidnappings are considered easy money. People, especially children are being grabbed at gunpoint. Their families are notified usually by cell phone text message and threatened with a ransom ranging from $500 to $800.
The government has made a noticeable effort to combat crime, as of late. There is a stronger police presence in and around the city and a special crime unit has been assigned to come up with a solution and to report it to Parliament next year.
That solution might be GPS tracking. The company making the GPS tracking proposal says the system runs off a network of computer servers and GPS tracking satellites. Each device would update its position automatically every few minutes. But the GPS tracking coordinates would not be referenced until an emergency alert is issued.
The GPS tracking alert would go off when an individual travels outside a geographic “safe zone.” That GPS tracking feature is called geo-fencing. A call for help would also go out when the panic button is pressed.
GPS tracking technology such as this started with vehicle tracking. Over time, the devices became small and sophisticated enough to work for personal tracking.
It is uncertain how wide an area Kenya’s proposed GPS tracking program will cover. Officials say it is too soon to estimate costs and decide who will bear costs of the project.
More than 40 people have been charged this year with kidnapping in the capital alone. There is no telling how many people and money were exchanged as a result of the on-street snatchings, because often families to not report them.
Source: Voice of America
Tags: Africa, GPS Tracking, Kenya, Kidnapping, Nairobi, police, ransom, Solution
Related posts:
- GPS Tracking – Newly-Installed GPS Tracking Devices Reveal Slacker Truckers In a tight economy, anyone lucky enough to still have...
- Would-be Car Thief ‘Pocket-Dials’ Police when three teenagers, in essence, called in their own crime....
- GPS Tracking a Vital Part of Armored Car Industry In order to protect one’s assets and rein in insurance...
- GPS Tracking Devices May Be Placed on Vehicles by Police Without Warrant, says Madison Judge WOODSTOCK, IL (May 12, 2009) – Designers, manufacturers and distributors...
- Put GPS Tracking Devices on Your Christmas Decorations Each year throughout the U.S., the holiday season is marked...
