diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index df2dcce..aac9d93 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -28,6 +28,8 @@ RUN apk add --no-cache --virtual .build-deps \
     && rm -rf /usr/local/source \
     && chmod 755 /usr/local/sbin/recorder-health.sh \
     && apk del .build-deps
+RUN apk add --no-cache \
+	curl jq
 
 VOLUME ["/store", "/config"]
 
diff --git a/recorder-health.sh b/recorder-health.sh
index 745dab3..02e65ef 100644
--- a/recorder-health.sh
+++ b/recorder-health.sh
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ curl -sSL --data "${location}" "http://${addr}:${port}/pub?u=ping&d=ping" > /dev
 
 # obtain tst of ping/ping's last location
 ret_epoch=$(curl -sSL http://${addr}:${port}/api/0/last --data "user=ping&device=ping" |
-           env python -c 'import sys, json; print json.load(sys.stdin)[0]["tst"];')
+           env jq -r '.[0].tst' )
 
 if [ $epoch -ne $ret_epoch ]; then
        echo PANIC $epoch $ret_epoch