← Back to context

Comment by chaps

9 hours ago

If someone's home is 30' by 30' feet, yes, that person's device will report them having left their home and they'll get a visit if GPS suddenly shifts 30 feet to the left.

I'm talking about the class of problem. It happens in normal weather conditions and things like this exacerbate the problem.

Really not sure what the hostility's about.

As a neutral participant I think “the hostility” is probably because of your condescending tone when you said “hopefully it helps your confusion”. Your initial article really didn’t say anything about people being re-incarcerated for these sorts of errors. I really want to say “maybe you got CONFUSED and posted the wrong one!” but that would be snotty and condescending too.

But maybe you posted the wrong one to begin with.

Let’s all be friends and nice to each other.

GPS is not that accurate even on a good day. A small device attached to someone’s ankle with a small antenna and an obstructed view of the sky will frequently be registering locations outside of the footprint of someone’s house.

A single 33 foot anomaly is already within the geofence buffer zones used. In dense urban areas the geofence buffer allowance may be 10X that already.

  • It should be treated that way but we’re talking about elected prosecutors who are itching for an excuse to put people in prison rather than looking “soft on crime” by allowing people to live under house arrest.

Do you have any examples of someone getting thrown behind bars due to a GPS error on the order of ~30ft like you're claiming? That's all I'm asking. Really don't understand why you keep avoiding it. You've essentially claimed police/judges are doing something rather stupid and terrible. I'm asking you to show example(s) of what you claimed (~30ft error → thrown behind bars), not something significantly different (~1+ mi error → only-police-visit-but-not-thrown-behind-bars).

  • "You've essentially claimed police/judges are doing something rather stupid and terrible."

    Yes, yes I am. You really need to realize just how unbelievably fucking arbitrary the criminal courts are. At every level. They're not tech people.

    To answer your question, I have examples of motions by prosecutors to suspend people from the EM program where they specifically cite specific data points just barely out of their homes, where video footage provably shows they were inside the whole time. They're not mine to share.

    Btw, the courts are public and you should try some criminal courts watching. Pick a random day and just go.

    • > To answer your question

      Looking forward!

      > motions by prosecutors

      Motion ≠ incarceration. So, not an answer (yet?)...

      Did defendants get incarcerated as a result of these motions, or no?

      4 replies →

    • > Btw, the courts are public and you should try some criminal courts watching. Pick a random day and just go.

      So you could find an example easily but you don't want to? Or you're suggesting court watching in general and not to find an example?

      "I have an example I won't share" is better than nothing, I guess. But you were being snarky before you even said that much, when you were just linking your article and not saying if examples existed at all.

      I'm curious why they're not yours to share, though. Did someone give them to you under private circumstances, or can people get there from public information but you think you shouldn't spread the word?

      2 replies →