Rising offender monitoring volumes signal a maturing but still underpenetrated public-safety IoT segment. Scale growth will force vendors to optimize device power budgets, connectivity costs and cloud analytics for high-availability, evidential-grade data. Diverging adoption of RF versus GPS points to continued regional fragmentation, challenging vendors to support multiple technology stacks and compliance regimes. The shift toward victim-protection and alcohol-monitoring use cases broadens requirements from simple location tracking to richer sensor fusion, aligning EM with the wider trend of specialized mission-critical IoT platforms in regulated domains.
Electronic monitoring market set to reach US$2.2bn by 2030 as EM programmes expand across Europe, the Americas and Oceania
Berg Insight, the leading IoT market research provider, today released new findings about the market for Electronic Monitoring (EM) of offenders.
The number of simultaneous participants in EM programmes in Europe, North America, Latin America and Oceania amounted to about 92,000, 564,000, 162,000 and 11,000 respectively during 2025.
The total number of EM programme participants during the full year 2025 reached 285,000 in Europe, 959,000 in North America, 357,000 in Latin America and 33,000 in Oceania.
Berg Insight estimates that the number of simultaneous participants will grow to 130,000 in Europe, 700,000 in North America, 278,000 in Latin America and 16,000 in Oceania by 2030. The market value in 2025 reached US$ 365 million in Europe, US$ 1.1 billion in North America, US$ 97 million in Latin America and US$ 31 million in Oceania. The total market value in the four regions combined is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 5.9 percent from US$ 1.6 billion in 2025 to US$ 2.2 billion in 2030.
Electronic monitoring (EM) programmes was first introduced in the US in the early 1980s. Today, EM is an established alternative to detention across Europe and North America and in some Latin American and Oceanian countries. EM programmes aim to increase offender accountability, reduce recidivism rates and enhance public safety by providing an additional tool to traditional methods of community supervision. Policy makers, corrections authorities and private sector service providers advocate for extended EM programmes to reduce total correctional system costs and to combat prison overcrowding.
There are two dominant technologies used for electronic monitoring – Radio Frequency (RF) and GPS. RF-based systems are today the most common type of solution in most European countries. In the US, Australia and New Zealand in Oceania, Brazil and other countries in Latin America, GPS-based solutions are used in the vast majority of cases. A number of private companies are involved in the provisioning of EM, including developing, supplying and installing equipment, providing monitoring services as well as delivering other supporting services.
Leading providers of EM equipment and services include US-based BI Inc. (GEO Group), Allied Universal Electronic Monitoring, Sentinel Offender Services, SCRAM Systems, Securus Technologies, Shadowtrack, Corrisoft, Talitrix and Track Group; UK-based Buddi; Israel-based SuperCom; Poland-based Enigma (COMP Group); Switzerland-based Geosatis; and Brazil-based Spacecom, Synergye and UE Brasil Tecnologia.
“The EM market is competitive and characterised by high entry barriers and price pressure”, says Filip Andersson, IoT Analyst at Berg Insight. A handful of established players control a large share of the global market.
Even though electronic monitoring has been around for about 40 years, the form factor of the monitoring device has changed little. New discreetly designed wrist-worn GPS devices have emerged in recent years, making monitoring less intrusive for wearers and reducing the stigma associated with ankle bracelets. Devices that combine GPS tracking and alcohol monitoring are also increasingly used as part of EM programmes.
“Solutions aimed to protect the victims of domestic violence and other violent crimes from the offender have been growing in use in the past few years”, continues Mr. Andersson.
Some countries have expanded the use of domestic violence programmes as these offences have become more common in some jurisdictions. Public concern has further intensified pressure on governments to respond to the growing number of offences related to domestic violence. At the same time, prison overcrowding and rising incarceration costs continue to impose major challenges for many jurisdictions.
Mr. Andersson concludes:
“The potential for EM in all four regions remains promising and EM programmes are expected to increase in size in the next few years.”
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