SCRAMNET GPS

At 5:00 AM MDT on Thursday, July 25, 2024, SCRAM Systems will release the following enhancements and new features to SCRAMNET GPS:

• New “Unable to start Pursuit Mode” message
• New Entry and Exit Alert default settings for Inclusion Zones
• New “Deceased” reason available when inactivating a client
• The Device History Report is now also available to the Officer role
• Enhancements to the SCRAM GPS Monitoring Center

During the 15-minute deployment, you may not be able to access SCRAMNET GPS, but messages from the SCRAM GPS device will continue to be processed uninterrupted.

Pursuit Mode Enhancement

Currently, if an agent attempts to start Pursuit Mode for a client whose device has active No Communication or No Location alerts, SCRAMNET GPS fail to start Pursuit Mode, without informing the agent why Pursuit Mode will not start. With this change, the agent will be notified that Pursuit Mode is unable to start, and provide a reason why:

New Entry and Exit Alert Default Settings for Inclusion Zones

When creating an Inclusion Zone, SCRAMNET GPS automatically generates Entry and Exit alerts for the zone. If the user does not want Entry or Exit events, they must manually uncheck these settings before saving the zone:

With this enhancement, Administrators may choose the default behavior when creating Inclusion Zones by navigating to Admin > Account Settings > Accounts (tab) > Preferences (sub-tab) to set the Default Entry/Exit Alerts for Inclusion Zones behavior. By default, this setting is selected (checked) to match existing behavior:

New “Deceased” Reason for Client Inactivation

If your program uses client “Inactivation Statuses” (reasons for inactivation), with this release agents may select “Deceased” as the reason for setting a client’s Status to Inactive:

This reason is in line with the American Probation and Parole Association’s National Standards for Community Supervision. To activate this feature in SCRAMNET GPS, a program Administrator must navigate to Admin > Account Settings > Accounts (tab) > Preferences (sub-tab) and then select (check) Allow Assignment of Inactivation Statuses.

‘Device History Report’ Now Available to Officer Role

SCRAMNET GPS users in the Officer role may now run the Device History Report. This report was previously available only to Admin users. This report can be run for a specific device, or client, to see the assignment and unassignment history.

Enhancements to the SCRAM GPS Monitoring Center

For SCRAM Systems customers who use our SCRAM GPS Monitoring Center service, it allows them to define Service Level Agreements, and Standard Operating Procedures for addressing SCRAM GPS alerts. The Monitoring Center can be managed directly by the customer or by SCRAM Systems specialists. The following enhancements have been added to the service:

1. Notes may be updated to Monitoring Center tickets without closing or suspending the ticket. As many notes as needed may be added to the ticket without changing its status.
2. The Monitoring Center Dashboard shows the name of the Agent who last updated the ticket. This is useful for follow up with the agent when you have additional questions.
3. The Monitoring Center now surfaces Neutral Zone Entry and Neutral Zone Exit events.

At 5:00 AM MDT on Thursday, June 27, 2024, SCRAM Systems released an enhancement to the SCRAMNET GPS Suspend Alerts feature.

Suspend Alerts

The Suspend Alerts feature in SCRAMNET GPS is used to suspend alerts from appearing on the Dashboard and to pause notifications from being sent for specific clients during a specified time period. This is useful when you know alerts will be generated and there is no need for supervising authorities to take any action. For example, a client in the hospital might generate ‘No Communication’ and ‘No Location’ events while admitted, due to the hospital building’s impaired environment, but the client’s location and condition is known; so there is no need to take action.

Alerts can be suspended by selecting Suspend Alerts from the context dropdown menu next to the client’s name on the SCRAMNET GPS Dashboard:

Prior to this release, SCRAMNET GPS offered two options for suspending alerts:

1. Suspend All Alerts – During the suspension period, alerts do not show on the dashboard, notifications are not sent, and tickets are not generated for the GPS Monitoring Center.
2. Suspend Alerts to Call Center Only – During the suspension period, tickets will not be generated for the GPS Monitoring Center; however, the alerts are shown on the dashboard, and notifications are still sent.

The ‘Suspend Alerts to Call Center Only’ option is only visible to accounts using the GPS Monitoring Center service.

Simplified Process for Enabling Suspend Alerts

Previously, to suspend alerts users had to first toggle the Enable Suspend Alerts button to ON before selecting the suspension timeframe. With this release, the toggle button has been removed. Users may configure the suspension directly without first setting the button to ON.

Although the toggle is gone, the ON / OFF badge in the Suspend Alerts tab is still used to indicate at a glance if a suspension is active, without having to click into the tab.

Suspend Alerts by Dashboard Column

Thursday’s release introduced a third Suspend Alerts option in addition to the two described above: Suspend Specific Alerts (by Dashboard Column). This option supports suspending specific alerts that appear in the columns on the SCRAMNET GPS Dashboard. This is useful when you want to suspend some alerts, but don’t want to suspend all alerts. For example, you could suspend ‘No Communication’ and ‘No Location’ events, but leave ‘Tamper’ events active. To use this new feature:

1. Select the Suspend Specific Alerts (by Dashboard Column) radio button
2. Then select the desired Dashboard columns from the dropdown menu
3. Hover over the Information icon to see which specific alerts apply to the selected columns
4. Select the appropriate Duration for the alert suspension(s)
5. Add a Reason for the alert suspension
6. Save your new alert suspension schedule

Upon selecting Save, the Suspend Specific Alerts dialog window will appear:

Select Yes on the dialog window to confirm your new alert suspension schedule. It will appear in a table beneath the Save button at the bottom of the page:

Schedule Multiple Suspensions

Additionally, Suspend Alerts by Dashboard Column supports multiple and recurring suspensions. To schedule multiple suspensions:

1. Select Only suspend during this time range
2. Set the Suspend Start Date, Start Time, End Time, and Suspend End Date
3. Then click Save

Schedules may be for overnight, or may last longer than 24 hours. Please note, however, that no part of a scheduled suspension can overlap with any other scheduled suspension. For example:

Start Date	Start Time	End Date	End Time	Result
June 26	11:00 PM	June 27	7:00 AM	This is an overnight schedule and will end the next morning
June 26	11:00 PM	June 30	7:00 AM	The suspension will start June 26 at 11:00 PM and continue until June 30 at 7:00 AM

Schedule Recurring Suspensions

Scheduled suspensions can be recurring. For example, alerts can be suspended every day for the next five days, or every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. When creating the suspension select the Repeating Occurrence radio button to reveal the Frequency options. Then select the desired Frequency:

Once you Save the alert suspension schedule(s) and select Yes to confirm in the dialog window, the recurring suspension(s) will appear the table at the bottom of the page:

How Suspensions Appear on the Dashboard

The Dashboard visually indicates if all alerts are suspended or if only alerts for specific columns are suspended. Suspended columns are highlighted in red. Alerts for other columns will continue to appear and function normally. Mouse over the client’s name to see details of the alert suspension:

Delete Active or Scheduled Suspensions

To delete an “Active” or “Scheduled” suspension, simply select the Delete (x) icon at the far right of the row you wish to delete:

Deleting an active or scheduled suspension deletes the entire series, as indicated in the End Suspension dialog window.

Select Yes to confirm you wish to end the alert suspension series.

Auditing

Audit entries are added to the Audit Report when schedules are created, deleted, become active, or end.

At 5:00 AM MDT on Thursday, May 23, 2024, SCRAM Systems released two enhancements to SCRAMNET GPS:

1. Two new features that clarify client location points on the map while in Pursuit Mode.
2. MC Customers Only – A new checkbox added to the Client Profile for future use.

Pursuit Mode Enhancements

While in Pursuit Mode, the SCRAM GPS device acquires and transmits location points every 15 seconds. The high frequency of location point acquisition and transmission during Pursuit Mode can sometimes lead to confusing map results; specifically:

1. Location points failing to appear on map when expected, or
2. Multiple location points appearing on the map at the same time.

New features have been added to Pursuit Mode to help clarify each of these two occurrences.

Location Point Message

Due to the rapid acquisition and transmission of location points during Pursuit Mode, there is an increased possibility that the Locator (SCRAM GPS device) will sometimes send a location point to the monitoring system more quickly than it can be verified. When the SCRAMNET GPS monitoring system receives an unverified location point, it labels it as “inconclusive” and cannot display it on the map.

With this release, SCRAMNET GPS will display a 10-second message which explains, “The Locator sent an inconclusive location,” the exact time the inconclusive location was sent, and to expect the next location point in approximately 15 seconds (see arrow below).

Location Point Auto-Sequencing

During Pursuit Mode, there is also an increased possibility that the SCRAMNET GPS monitoring system will receive multiple location points at the same time. This can be confusing when viewed on the map because the sequence of the points is unknown.

With this release, when the monitoring system receives multiple location points at once, each point will automatically be sequenced and separated by one second when displayed on the map in SCRAMNET GPS (see circle above).

New Client Profile Checkbox – Future Use

When accessing the Profile tab for clients, SCRAM GPS Monitoring Center customers may notice a new “GPS Monitoring Center Settings and Preferences” section beneath the client photo.

This new section and checkbox support a future SCRAM GPS Monitoring Center feature that is currently entering beta testing, and the checkbox does not impact anything at this time.

At 5:00 AM MDT on Thursday, March 21, 2024, SCRAM Systems is introducing an enhancement to SCRAMNET GPS that will allow you automatically center client location points on the map while in Pursuit Mode.

During the 15-minute deployment, you may not be able to access SCRAMNET GPS, but messages from the SCRAM GPS device will continue to be processed uninterrupted.

Center Client Location Points on the Map While in Pursuit Mode

While in Pursuit Mode, location points can sometimes drop outside of the viewable map area and the map must be adjusted to see the point. With this update, each location point is automatically centered on the map. This feature can be toggled on and off as needed. For example, to focus the map on a specific area, the feature can be disabled so that the next point from the locator will not adjust the map.

To toggle automatic centering of the map, click the Location Information button on the top left of the map to expand the Location Information dialog window:

Then uncheck Keep Current Point Centered. When this checkbox is unchecked, the map will remain in its current position and zoom level.

At 5:00 AM MT on Thursday, February 29, 2024, SCRAM Systems^® introduced two new device inventory statuses, “Awaiting Return” and “Pending Removal,” in SCRAMNET GPS^®.

When to Use the New Statuses

Two new inventory statuses will now be available to help better track device inventory:

1. Awaiting Return: This status indicates the device has been unassigned and removed from the client’s ankle, but the device must be retrieved from another location (the county jail or a satellite office, e.g.) before it can be placed back into inventory.
2. Pending Removal: This status indicates the device has been unassigned but is still on the client’s ankle and is pending removal during a future appointment with the client.

Note: Once the GPS device has been unassigned – and before it is placed into either one of these new statuses – billing stops.

Devices in these two statuses cannot be assigned to the next client because they are not yet in inventory. Use the Devices tab in Account Settings to receive these devices into inventory so they can be assigned to a client.

How to “Unassign” a SCRAM GPS Device

Devices can be unassigned in the following ways:

1. Unassign the device from the Device Assignment page
2. Manually inactivate the client from the Client Profile page
3. Manually inactivate the client from the Manage Clients dialog
4. Automatically inactivate the client from the End of Service setting

Unassign a Device from the Device Assignment Page

When unassigning a device from the Device Assignment page, a prompt is displayed confirming the unassignment. This prompt has been updated to allow setting the inventory status. The Device Inventory Status dropdown menu defaults to “In Inventory.”

Manually Inactivate the Client from the Client Profile Page

Clients can be manually inactivated from the Client Profile page, and this action unassigns the GPS device. The Inactivation Reason confirmation dialog allows you to set the Device Inventory Status.

Note: This dialog may look different for you depending on the account-level setting: Allow assignment of inactivation statuses.

Manually Inactivate the Client from the Manage Clients Dialog

Clients can be manually inactivated from the Manage Clients dialog, and this action unassigns the GPS device. The same Inactivation Reason confirmation dialog as above is shown and allows you to set the Device Inventory Status.

Automatically Inactivate the Client from the End of Service Setting

Clients can automatically be inactivated when their end of service date is reached if this feature is enabled in the Account Settings page. Additionally, the preferred inventory status can be set for clients who are automatically inactivated.

Tracking “Awaiting Return” and “Pending Removal” Inventory Statuses

Use the Admin > Account Settings > Devices tab to track devices Awaiting Return and Pending Removal, and to receive them into inventory.

Filter devices using the Inventory Status dropdown menu and, optionally, Print the report. Select the appropriate device and click Device Received to change the device’s inventory status to “In Inventory;” so it can be assigned to another client.

Tip: For those devices in Pending Removal status, use the Last Assigned To column to see the name of the client who is still wearing the device.

On Thursday, November 16, 2023, SCRAM Systems introduced the following three new features in SCRAMNET GPS:

1. New Alert – Possible Cellular Jamming
2. Client ‘Notes’ Dialog Includes Notes Up to One Year Old
3. Beacon Schedules Support Schedule Exceptions

New Alert – ‘Possible Cellular Jamming’

The cellular communications module in the SCRAM GPS device can detect the presence of another device that is creating a radio frequency (RF) disturbance in the cellular signal of the SCRAM GPS device. If this RF disturbance in the cellular signal subsequently causes a loss of communication between the SCRAM GPS device, the cell tower it was registered to at the time, and an adjacent cell tower, then a Possible Cellular Jamming alert will generate.

The appearance of a Possible Cellular Jamming alert in SCRAMNET GPS does not necessarily mean the client intentionally blocked the cellular signal. It simply indicates that there was RF interference present, and that interference caused the SCRAM GPS device to lose contact with the cellular network. The RF disturbance could have been created by anything in the surrounding environment that emits radio frequencies.

Switching it On and Off

Enable or disable this alert by accessing it in the Account Settings dialog (Admin > Account Settings > Accounts (tab) > Show Possible Cellular Jamming Alert):

Once enabled, SCRAMNET GPS Account Administrators may configure the AutoClear settings in the Account Notifications dialog (Admin > Account Settings > Account Notifications (tab) > Locator Notifications (tab) > Warning (tab):

When AutoClear is checked, the alert will automatically clear when the corresponding clear event is received.

Receiving Client Notifications

Once the Possible Cellular Jamming alert is enabled, you may subscribe Users, Recipients, and/or Victims to receive notifications by activating them via the Notifications tab on the Client Profile.

The Possible Cellular Jamming alert will also appear on the Client Events dialog along with all other enabled events and alerts:

The SCRAM GPS device will send a corresponding clear event when the disturbance has cleared, however, Officers & Agents may also manually clear the event.

Troubleshooting

To troubleshoot a Possible Cellular Jamming alert, try calling the client on the client’s mobile phone while the Possible Cellular Jamming alert is still active (red). If the call will not connect (goes immediately to voicemail, e.g.), then it is possible that cellular signals in the client’s vicinity are being blocked and further investigation may be warranted.

If you are able to reach the client, ask the client to move to another position at least 35 feet from their current position. If the alert clears (yellow) and does not re-generate when the client returns to their original position, then it may have been caused by random RF interference. If the alert clears, but then re-generates once the client returns to their original position, then further investigation may be warranted.

If you notice a pattern of the Possible Cellular Jamming alert generating in the same geographical location for a client repeatedly, then – depending on the nature of the location where the alert generates and whether or not you would expect a high level of RF interference in that environment – further investigation may be warranted.

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Client ‘Notes’ Dialog Includes Notes Up to One Year Old

The Client Notes dialog includes Event notes up to one year old. Previously, notes only up to three months old were displayed. To access the Client Notes dialog, click the Notes button on the Client Profile Summary dialog:

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Beacon Schedules Support Schedule Exceptions

Schedule Exceptions can now be created for Beacon Schedules to allow clients outside of beacon range for approved reasons.

On, September 21, 2023, SCRAM Systems will release an enhancement to the SCRAM TouchPoint Documents page for your client’s supervision plan in SCRAMNET GPS . This enhancement enables you to require a client to electronically sign a PDF Document shared with them via their TouchPoint mobile application.

Not seeing the enhancement in SCRAMNET GPS? Clear your cache and cookies and refresh your browser window. The latest version of the TouchPoint app will be available to clients in the app stores. As a best practice, SCRAM Systems recommends that all TouchPoint app users enable their smartphones for automatic app updates (SCRAM login required) to make this process easier.

Require an eSignature

You may require an eSignature for any PDF document you wish to share with your client’s TouchPoint mobile application. This includes new and previously viewed PDFs.

To require an eSignature for a new PDF document:

1. Select the Upload File button on the client’s Documents page.
2. On the Upload File pop-up, choose the PDF file.
3. Select the checkbox to Require Signature.
4. Select the Save button.

5. Once displayed on the Documents page, Share the PDF with the client’s TouchPoint mobile application.

If an eSignature is no longer required, you may now select Cancel eSignature.

You may request an eSignature for previously shared and viewed PDFs by selecting the ellipsis and then selecting the Require eSignature option. The client will then be notified that a document requires an eSignature.

SCRAM TouchPoint Mobile Application

When an eSignature is required for a shared document, the application’s Home screen will display a banner that alerts the client of the necessary eSignature.

To complete an eSignature, have the client:

1. View the PDF within the TouchPoint mobile application by tapping on it.

2. After viewing the document, a “Pending eSign” badge will display next to the ellipsis. Tap the ellipsis and then tap the Sign option.  

3. Sign your name on the eSignature pop-up and tap the Save button.

A message of “Submitting eSignature” will display on the screen. Once submitted, an “eSign Completed” badge will display next to the document’s information.

View eSignature

After the client views the document and completes the eSignature on their TouchPoint mobile application, the status for that document will update from “Pending eSignature” to “Signed” on the client’s Documents page.

Following the established process, you may view the eSignature from the Document Preview pop-up or download the document to your computer.