London Takes a Trial on Ankle Tags to Curb Alcoholism in the City
Beware all bar-room brawlers and drink-drivers of London. The Lindsay Lohan famous ankle tags are after you to detect alcoholism! According to BBC, London Mayor Boris Johnson has introduced the reform in London to check Alcohol-recedivism that is threatening the high streets and deterring people from enjoying the city, especially at night.
London had the formal launch of the ankle tags a couple of days ago. Mayor Boris Johnson announced that initially the tags will be applied on 150 offenders in its four-month trial. The trial of the device in the South London Local Justice Area will see judges handing out sentences of 'alcohol abstinence monitoring'. A convicted offender will be banned from drinking any alcohol up to 120 days and will wear the 'transdermal' anklet. The trial will take place in London boroughs of Croydon, Lambeth, Southwark and Sutton.
Actress Lindsay Lohan case
Hollywood actress Lindsay Lohan is the alky-tag trailblazer and was its pin up girl. In 2007, Lohan was fitted with a SCRAM bracelet or Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitoring device. Lohan made it a fashion item by posing in it on a surfboard. The actress was ordered to wear the anklet in 2007 after she was caught in a drink-driving case.
The ankle tags were very successfull in the US. The tags can easily detect if someone was drunk. These sobriety tags have to be worn round the clock to enforce abstinence. It can measure a person's perspiration every 30 minutes and test if it contains alcohol. In case traces of alcohol are found a message will go to the offender's probation officer. Subsequently it will pave for that person's production in the court to face sanctions such as a fine or re-sentence.
The efficacy of ankle tags is attested by professor Keith Humphreys, the former White House adviser on drugs. Thanks to ankle tags South Dakota experienced drink-driving offences dropping 12 per cent and domestic violence coming down by 9 per cent.
For London, the tags are being produced by Alcohol Monitoring Systems, an American company, which produced them for the US market.