Criminals ordered to wear tracking bracelets evading law
Dozens of dangerous Victorian criminals ordered to wear GPS tracking bracelets are cutting them off to roam freely around our communities.
Police & Courts
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Criminals ordered to wear tracking bracelets are deliberately hacking them off in record numbers to roam free.
Dozens of offenders have unlawfully removed electronic monitoring devices and absconded across the state, data obtained by the Herald Sun reveals.
In 2020 and 2021, forty offenders tried to break free from their ankle devices in Victoria, while in 2019 another nine attempted to do so.
The sophisticated GPS devices are designed to be immovable, and require specialist equipment to detach lawfully.
They monitor curfew and exclusion zone compliance.
When a breach is recorded the Department of Justice and Community is instantly alerted, who then notifies Victoria Police who pursue the offender.
The amount of criminals who unlawfully removed their devices in 2021 was 2 per cent.
It comes as the number of criminals fitted with ankle bracelets has increased five-fold since their introduction in Victoria eight years ago.
On January 1, 2022, 411 Victorians were fitted with electronic monitoring devices compared to just 80 who were required to wear one on May, 1, 2014, when the scheme was introduced.
Of the 2273 offenders fitted with a device in the five year period between 2017 and 2021, 2105 were male, 167 were female and one was gender-neutral.
A Department of Justice and Community Safety spokesman said electronic monitoring was part of an “effective suite of measures” used to monitor offenders in the community
“Courts and the Youth and Adult Parole Boards have a range of options available to them to ensure the safety of the community, including imposing a requirement for persons to be subject to electronic monitoring as a condition of a Community Correction Order, parole order or supervision order,” a statement said.
Electronic monitoring can be used for offenders 16 years and over.
Former police officer turned Justice party MP Stuart Grimley supports electronic monitoring as a tool to fight crime, in particular the scourge of family violence.
“Electronic monitoring has also been identified as leading to lower rates of recidivism as offenders of lower level crimes are not housed alongside more serious offenders,” he said.
“Why can’t this technology also be used for those on bail and recidivist family violence perpetrators to track their movements.
“With unacceptable levels of domestic violence, and violence against women and children so prevalent in our society, it simply makes sense.”
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