Cal.1st: GPS monitoring can be a valid and constitutional condition of juvenile probation

GPS monitoring can be a valid and constitutional condition of juvenile probation. Here, however, the record was muddled on it. In re A.M., 2013 Cal. App. LEXIS 881 (1st Dist. October 30, 2013). Official summary of the court:

Pursuant to Welf. & Inst. Code, § 601, the juvenile court declared defendant minor a ward of the court for habitual truancy and placed her on global positioning system (GPS) monitoring as a condition of probation. …

The Court of Appeal affirmed the order. The court held that in appropriate circumstances—such as may exist where a ward continues a pattern of truancy and violates curfew—GPS monitoring may be an appropriate condition of probation for a minor who is declared a ward of the court pursuant to Welf. & Inst. Code, § 601. The juvenile court had vacated the GPS monitoring order, but the record did not indicate defendant was reinstated on GPS monitoring. Because defendant did not appeal any order actually placing her on GPS monitoring, no such order was before the Court of Appeal, so it had no occasion to decide whether the juvenile court properly exercised its discretion in its earlier orders placing defendant on GPS monitoring.