Voice recognition technology is a flexible system that can be used to enhance the supervision of offenders and monitor attendance at school, work, or other programmes. It can be ideal for a single worker on a customer’s site, such as cleaners or maintenance, booking in on arrival and out when finished. It is a simple way of checking a person's whereabouts at a particular time and can be included within a community or bail order imposed by a court or within a prison licence.
The offender does not have to wear a tag. A telephone is the only equipment required. It is particularly suitable for intermittent or random monitoring.
Voice verification is used in one of two ways or a combination of both:
- Random calls from Reliance to check that an offender is where they should be at that time.
- The offender is asked to call the monitoring centre from a specific phone at given times to confirm their location. This is done from the telephone number and recognition of their voice.
Prior to this we would take a 'voiceprint' from the offender against which all subsequent checks are matched, and explain how the process works to the offender and their family. All violations - failing to make or receive a designated call - are reported to the relevant authority.
