New app could keep track of Victorians on bail and community corrections orders

A geolocation app could keep track of bailed Victorians as part of a bold new bid to protect the public from violent criminals.

Victorians on bail and those serving community correction orders would all be tracked by a geolocation app under a bold new bid to protect the public from violent criminals.

Justice Party leader Stuart Grimley will call on the state government to introduce the new technology, amid fears that compliance checks had fallen to dangerously low levels.

It comes after the Victorian government this week announced it would trial a similar technology to monitor compliance levels for those undergoing home quarantine.

The new app will be used in a four week pilot for people who have returned to Victoria from extreme risk zones.

Mr Grimley said there was no reason that same measure couldn’t be extended to the state’s justice system.

“We can walk and chew gum at the same time,” he said.

“If the state government believes home quarantine compliance can be done through new technologies, why can’t we have the same for offenders on CCOs?”

The technology would work by sending an offender an alert to their mobile device requesting a photo of their face – and their location via GPS – in real time.

Behind the walls of Port Phillip Prison. Picture: David Caird

It would ensure those subjected to the orders don’t leave home in breach of their conditions, and couldn’t ask a family member to respond to the notification.

The offender would have 15 minutes to reply before authorities are notified, with calls to randomise the alerts in a bid to dispel patterns and loopholes.

It comes as Mr Grimley revealed he had received reports that Community Correctional Services (CCS) were not checking in on all offenders with curfews or exclusion order conditions.

“This is extremely worrying,” he said.

“There is a problem in this state with compliance checking of those who have a curfew or exclusion zone condition as part of their CCO.”

There are currently 8747 Victorian offenders serving a community based order, including parole, supervised CCOs and reparation orders involving community work.

Orders are issued by the courts and court-imposed conditions are targeted to individual risk.

A Department of Justice and Community Safety spokeswoman said there was “well-established rigorous processes in place to manage and regularly monitor all offenders on CCOs”.

But the department acknowledged they were always looking at ways to continuously improve offender management, including through the use of enhanced technology, and the training and guidance provided to staff.

It comes after a Coroners Court finding into the death of Ashley Phillips – murdered by Jason Considine in 2017 – identified a failure to take earlier action through the “proactive monitoring” of Mr Considine’s CCO compliance.

State coroner Judge John Cain ruled the level of monitoring did not satisfy CCS policy requirements and was a “significant missed opportunity to intervene in the circumstances leading to Mr Phillips’ death”.

Amendments to the Sentencing Act 1991 in April 2020 enabled magistrates – for the first time – to make or vary a CCO to include electronic monitoring as a condition.

The measure was previously only available to the County and Supreme courts, but Mr Grimley said it needed to be a condition rolled out for every offender.

“More needs to be done to keep offenders accountable,” he said.

“If Community Corrections were serious about monitoring offenders using modern technology, they would have taken the advice of the Auditor-General, various Coroners and the Department’s own findings during the last five years.”