Abstract: A personnel monitoring system for monitoring presence or absence of particular individuals at preassigned monitoring locations. A local unit is provided at each monitoring location for detecting presence or absence. Each local unit is arranged for short range radio communication with a mobile unit, so that the presence or absence information from the local units may be obtained by brining the mobile unit into proximity with the various local units, as by an officer traveling near the various monitoring location in series. Each local unit may include the base unit of a standard cordless telephone, whereas the mobile unit may include the portable unit of such a telephone. The system desirably provides intercom communication between the mobile unit and the local unit when selected by the monitoring officer, so that the officer can communicate with the monitored person as desired.