Justice Secretary David Gauke today announced the national roll out of new GPS tags which will provide 24/7 location monitoring of offenders. This will help strengthen supervision, enforce exclusion zones and give victims greater peace of mind.
If a tagged domestic abuser or stalker enters a banned area or a gang member is found somewhere they should not be, this new capability will issue an automatic alert and their whereabouts will be known. Victims can now feel safer in the knowledge that any breach of an exclusion zone will result in an immediate alert. The tags also provide a tougher option for community sentences which can be used alongside requirements like alcohol or drug treatment programmes.
Mr Gauke said: "GPS tagging will help to better protect victims and give them the reassurance that perpetrators will not be able to breach an exclusion zone without triggering an immediate alert.
"I am confident that this important new technology will become a vital tool to increase public protection and strengthen options for tougher community sentences."
The GPS tags have so far been rolled out to 3 regions, the North West, Midlands and North East, with other regions due to go live in the coming months. The tags will be available across England and Wales by the summer.
The new technology is also set to be piloted in London (by the London Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime) to monitor offenders released from prison who have been convicted of knife crime offences. Offenders will have their movements checked against locations of reported crimes, in an effort to tackle violence in the capital.
Gloucestershire Police's Deputy Chief Constable Jon Stratford, the National Police Chiefs Council Electronic Monitoring lead, said: "The potential benefits of using this new technology to better protect victims are recognised by the police service and we’re working closely with the Ministry of Justice to identify a suitable joint implementation programme."
A wide range of offenders will be eligible for the new tags, including those subject to court-imposed bail, community orders and suspended sentence orders, as well as those on Home Detention Curfew and indeterminate sentenced prisoners released by the Parole Board.
Location monitoring can be used to:
- enforce an exclusion zone - an offender or individual on bail can’t enter a specific location or area;
- keep a given distance from a point or address, including victim’s address or that of a known criminal associate;
- monitor an offender’s attendance at a certain activity - for example work or a rehabilitation programme;
- monitor an offender’s movements to support discussions with probation about an offender’s lifestyle and behaviours.
The tags will transmit an offender's location 24/7 to a specialist monitoring unit in Manchester and if an offender enters an excluded zone and breaches their conditions, they face being recalled to prison or returned to court.
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