Desperate Parents Turn To Ankle Monitors To Keep Track Of Teens

CLEARWATER, FL -- A Clearwater company has a solution for parents who have a hard time keeping track of their rebellious teens – ankle monitors.

Tampa Bay Monitoring, the same company that provides and monitors ankle monitors for court-mandated offender programs in Tampa Bay, is now marketing ankle monitors to parents.

“It's sad, but we’ve had a lot of parents call us asking for a device they can use to track their teens, said Frank Kopczynski, owner of Tampa Bay Monitoring.

It was these inquiries that prompted him to begin offering GPS tracking devices for teens, he said.

It’s not something he recommends to overprotective parents who want to know where their child is at all times.

"I wouldn't sell to the helicopter mom who wants to know what their kid is doing upstairs in his room," said Kopcynski. "But for parents who have exhausted all other avenues, an ankle monitor may give them some peace of mind."

Nor is it a long-term solution, he said.

"I wouldn't keep an ankle monitor on a kid until he's 18," Kopczynski said. “If a kid is having extreme behavioral problems, you need to get them help, not an ankle monitor."

A former hospital administrator, Kopczynski served on former Gov. Jeb Bush’s and former Governor Charlie Crist’s Ex-Offender Task Forces and was chairman of the Pinellas County Ex-Offender Re-entry Coalition for 13 years. He believes access to mental health services would keep many young people out of jail.

“This is a last resort for parents who are at the end of their rope,” he said. “The kid is sneaking out every night and you know he’s not getting together with friends to say a novena or rosary. He's drinking or doing drugs.

“Or maybe they have a 13- or 14-year-old daughter who met this older guy over the Internet and now she thinks she’s in love and wants to run away with him," said Kopcynski.

He said he’s heard heart-breaking stories in which teen girls were lured away from home and turned into sex slaves.

Kopcysnki said his company monitors three to six teens at any one time. And these are the extreme cases. Putting ankle monitors on teens isn't making him rich.

"But there is obviously a demand for this service," he said.

Since he began marketing ankle monitors for teens, Kopcynski said he’s received calls from parents around the country who have teens at risk of running away, engaging in dangerous behaviors or have autism or other mental conditions that cause they to wander off and become endangered.

His company can’t monitor GPS devices outside of Tampa Bay, so he’s in the process of setting up a network of vendors throughout the United States to accommodate these desperate out-of-state parents.

Predictably, Kopcznski said he’s also received his fair share of phone calls and emails from outraged parents accusing him of treating children like common criminals.

“One woman even called me dystopian,” he said.

“But most are just parents who are desperate, who are afraid their child will overdose on drugs or get kidnapped by some 35-year-old guy who’s convinced her she’s in love,” he said. “I can’t think of anything worse than losing a child.”

Kopzynski currently offers two ankle monitoring system for teens -- one he describes as “minimally intrusive GPS monitoring” and one he calls “intense GPS monitoring for high-risk teens.”

“Our small ankle bracelet monitoring device can keep track of a teenager at all times. The device is discreet, lightweight, tamper proof and, if a teenager tries to take it off, parents will be alerted immediately,” he said.

The other device is the heavy-duty hardened steel-encased security cuff commonly used for offenders. It offers two-way communication and has an alert siren.

“One juvenile offender took a hatchet to one of these, trying to remove it, and didn’t make a dent,” he said.

Both types are monitored by his staff 24 hours a day. If a teen removes the bracelet or ventures out of a certain geographic area, his staff is alerted.

Video and images via Tampa Bay Monitoring

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