St. Louis Meteorologist Wasn't Wearing an Ankle Monitor on TV

Ankle monitors are surveillance devices used by law enforcement for those who are on house arrest, probation, parole, or awaiting trial. They are small black boxes that emit either radio or GPS transmissions to track individuals and cannot be easily removed. 

While the device attached to the meteorologist’s ankle looks similar to the ankle monitors used by law enforcement, it is not one.

The viral photo shows meteorologist Jaime Travers who works for FOX 2 in St. Louis. The box on her ankle is called an Interruptible foldback or IFB. IFBs are communications devices used for broadcasting and video production. 

It allows a director or producer to communicate directly with the on-air talent through their earpiece. Like an ankle monitor, they are usually small black boxes.

This isn’t the first time a news reporter has been accused of being in legal trouble because they were wearing an IFB. In 2016, images of Philadelphia meteorologist Cecily Tynan went viral with similar claims. 

Tynan explained why she had the device on her ankle in a Facebook post. She wrote: “What you see strapped to my ankle is an IFB box. My earpiece plugs into it producers can talk to me without being heard over the air. Anchors have it attached to the news desk. But, I need to move around, and my microphone pack is already on my waistband.”