Buddi

Buddi is a discreet GPS tracking service that can be used to accurately pinpoint an individual’s whereabouts. The device is already used by health services and local authorities, but through Reboot the service was adapted by Hertfordshire Police with the help of persistent offenders who volunteered to trial the tag as an alternative to prison custody. Traditional electronic monitoring technologies only monitor whether an offender has complied with the conditions of their curfew, and do not provide information about location. The Buddi tag collects a much more comprehensive daily data trail that can be mapped to show exactly where offenders are at a given point of time. The information is also used to support rehabilitation and help offenders change their behaviour. In face to face meetings offenders review the data trail with their supervisors to identify patterns in their lifestyle and then think about what they need to do differently to reduce the likelihood they will reoffend in the future. Police also have immediate access to the information so can quickly rule out potential suspects from an investigation – this reduces disruptions to offenders’ lives and speeds up overall investigation time. What is Buddi? Why is it important? How was it developed? What impact has it had? What next? In 2010 the Government announced that nearly 50% of offenders released from prison reoffend within a year and it is estimated that the social and economic costs of reoffending by those released from short sentences alone were between £7 and £10 billion a year. Limited employment prospects, low skills, financial problems, family difficulties and unstable accommodation arrangements mean offenders will often struggle not to reoffend when they are released from prison. Although support is provided to help offenders move back into the community this tends to target individual issues, despite the fact interventions that address a range of factors work best at preventing reoffending. This means it has limited capacity in what it can achieve, and it is simply used to demonstrate whether curfew conditions are being met, rather than support rehabilitation. Preventing and tackling offending by prolific offenders is a crucial task in making communities safer. By using monitoring information to support a wide ranging rehabilitative programme, Buddi helps prolific offenders break free from the cycle of crime and custody. The tracking data has demonstrated that almost two thirds of the offenders wearing the tag have not re-offended. This is a substantial step in their rehabilitation and improves public confidence in the Police. Rehabilitation is far higher among offenders wearing trackers than those who are not – within the Choices and Consequences programme 64% of offenders did not re-offend when wearing one, compared to 17% when not. At the same time in the area where Buddi was trialled domestic burglaries have declined by 17% and vehicle crime by 19%. Hertfordshire Police estimate the time and resource saved to officers who would otherwise have to carry out investigative work to exclude an individual from an investigation is considerable and up to £50,000 per investigation. GPS tracking helps build trust between offender and rehabilitation services, reducing disruption to the rehabilitation process. Community relations have also improved with knowledge of the offender management programme. Buddi and Hertfordshire Police will continue their partnership and where appropriate they intend to roll out the system to more offenders. The initial idea This multi-agency programme is designed to address the root causes of prolific offending and support sustained desistance from crime. Being open and flexible about how a technology is used is important as this increases opportunities to adapt the technology to provide new ways of meeting existing needs. The 22 volunteers who helped test the Buddi tag were typically male and in their late 20s. They had spent around half their adult life in prison, few had previously been employed and three-quarters had a Class A drug addiction. The technology needed to be adapted to this new context – it had to be discrete, tamper proof, waterproof and have a much longer battery life - without forsaking size and comfort. It was also important the tag and the data it provided were incorporated into the work of the team, the Probation Trust and the Police IT department. Volunteers have reported how they feel ‘safe’ wearing it and that it helped them maintain their intention to stop offending. This encouraged new volunteers to come forward and request the Buddi tag as part of their supervision, and as a result the Probation Trust has experienced positive improvements in openness and commitment to programme supervision sessions. Buddi was initially developed as a technology for parents who were concerned about losing their children and was then used to help vulnerable older people, and people with mental health difficulties stay safely in their own home. Hertfordshire Police wanted to use it for the longer term monitoring of offenders in their Choices and Consequences programme. The 76 offenders who entered the programme prior to the Buddi trial admitted to over 8,500 qualifying offences and their average offending rate has been calculated at 112 crimes per offender per year. In exchange for a full disclosure of past offences and following agreement by the Courts, individuals serve their sentence in the community rather than a custodial setting and receive a comprehensive support package to help get their lives back on track. Lessons Adapting the idea During the trial period volunteers were asked to provide feedback on practical elements of the design. The Buddi team also worked with Police colleagues to develop the user interface that mapped an offender’s activity. The tag that has been developed is worn by volunteers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and they are also in regular communication with the Offender Management Team throughout their rehabilitation. The new What is the wider potential for monitoring technologies like Buddi and how can they used to support rehabilitative approaches and encourage positive behaviour change? Our question to you Prototyping a model at a very small scale is an effective way of developing a working product and testing out the reactions of potential clients and investors. Lessons This also reduces risk because clients are not expected to make any long-term commitments until they are confident about the value of the technology. Lessons To adapt Buddi it was crucial the process was driven by the needs of the service rather than the functionality of the technology. It was also important local Police had the discretion to apply new offender management techniques. Lessons Effective partnership working is essential and those involved in the development and testing phases need to be strong enough to take on board feedback and criticism and still keep going. Lessons However it is important that the core project team is kept quite small during the experimental stages – involving a wider set of stakeholders can create pressure to meet lots of different expectations and slow the process down. Lessons Make visible benefits of using the technology and clearly articulate how it compliments existing approaches with minimal disruption – this will increase the likelihood the innovation is adopted. Lessons Foster relations with the wider audiences once a working version of the technology is ready – doing so will ensure there is wider support and awareness of the programme. Lessons As part of this package the team needed a tool that would support rehabilitation and demonstrate offenders were actually desisting from crime, and agreed to undertake a small scale pilot with volunteers from the programme. The C2 team worked closely with the Courts so that they felt confident in allowing offenders to take part in the programme and reassure them that the scheme would lead to a reduction in re-offending. approach The product has also been tested with 12 other Police forces including Oldham, Gloucestershire, Suffolk, Northamptonshire and Lancashire, and Buddi and Hertfordshire Police are supporting implementation in these and other areas. Buddi are also continuing to innovate in the field of offender management technology and improve the hardware and software. Currently data collected by the tag sits in a stand-alone system so in the next iteration of the platform the team will look at how to integrate this into other police systems. Scaling up a tool like Buddi requires a significant capital outlay – despite the fact Buddi costs are lower and more effective compared to traditional approaches, and it is an easily scalable technology. At the moment though there is no shared risk at this stage between the innovator and State, and procurement terms often favour large organisations over SMEs. The potential use of Buddi is far greater than its limited use of data in Hertfordshire. Wider use within the criminal justice system with offenders on community sentences, on bail and on release from prison is one area for growth. However there are many other situations such as monitoring absent parents where the ability for a person to demonstrate their behaviour could be used positively. Non-GPS enabled electronic tags are an established method of curfew management for offenders released into the community. This is cheaper than a custodial sentence but the technology yields very little information about an offender’s activities.