New ankle bracelets keep watch on criminals
NSW prison authorities have revealed a new state-of-the-art tracking system for high-risk offenders, including pedophiles.
It uses ankle bracelets and Global Positioning to monitor criminals on parole and crack down if they stray into exclusion zones, such as pubs or playgrounds.
"An audible alert comes through as well as an alarm coming through, indicating that you're in that location,” Senior Electronic Monitoring Officer Adam Simon said.
An officer from the electronic monitoring unit then sends a message to the offender telling them they had entered an exclusion zone and to immediately move out of the area.
Exclusion zones include schools, playgrounds, day care centres, bottle shops and pubs.
Addresses of other criminals and victims are also off-limits.
The equipment also flags up 'interest zones', which show more than one bracelet in the same location.
"We know who they're associating with. Clear message to them is, you are being watched. Behave yourselves,” NSW Attorney General Brad Hazzard said.
The bracelets are not foolproof but they're a big improvement on previous equipment.
"[It] allows us to actually quite strategically look at offender movements in the much broader scale,” Correctional Services Chief Executive Peter Severin said.
By mid-January, there will be 485 criminals wearing bracelets, with someone watching their every move.
