Tasmania’s family violence GPS electronic monitoring program to be rolled out nationally

Tasmania’s GPS-based electronic monitoring program, aimed at reducing family violence incidents, is about to go national. HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE BEING MONITORED >>

HIGH-risk domestic violence offenders across the country will be electronically monitored with a new GPS tracking program, based on Tasmania’s award-winning “Project Vigilance” model.

Tasmania’s Monitoring and Compliance Unit has now been operational for three years, with 29 staff members working over a 24-hour, seven-day roster.

Currently, nearly 200 people are being electronically monitored across Tasmania, including offenders on home detention orders, parolees with electronic monitoring conditions, family violence offenders with monitoring conditions and victim-survivors who carry the devices to increase their personal safety.

Attorney-General Elise Archer said the monitoring unit was established to provide alternative sentencing options for serious offenders, other than prison.

Picture of the device. Journalist Mark Morri wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet. Fitted at Silverwater Correctional Complex and then walking around Silverwater entering a predifined restricted zone.

“It has seen its scope of work expand significantly during its time in operation and allows us to keep victim-survivors and the community safe by ensuring offenders’ movements are tracked and stay within the parameters of any court-ordered conditions,” she said.

Last year, Project Vigilance won silver in the 2021 Australian Crime and Violence Prevention Awards.

The trial, jointly run by Tasmania Police and the Department of Justice, reported a 76 per cent decrease of high-risk incidents, a 75 per cent reduction of assaults and an 81 per cent reduction of threats.

It also reported a 74 per cent reduction in property damage and a 100 per cent decrease in reports of stalking.

Federal Minister for Women’s Safety, Senator Anne Ruston, announced the Australian government would spend $20 million rolling out a trial of Tasmania’s Project Vigilance to other states and territories.

Journalist Mark Morri wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet. Fitted at Silverwater Correctional Complex and then walking around Silverwater entering a predifined restricted zone.

The national trial is part of a $150 million pledge to tackle family, domestic and sexual violence.

Ms Ruston said the federal government gave Tasmania $1.4 million for the trial in 2017, which not only monitored offenders, but also enhanced protection “by creating exclusion and buffer zones based on the live location of the victim-survivor”, monitored in real-time using GPS tracking devices.

“We hear all too often that perpetrators flagrantly ignore the conditions of family violence orders and continue to be violent, harass and stalk their victims,” Ms Ruston said.

“Electronic monitoring is not the panacea to keep women safe but it is another tool in the tool kit as we seek to address the full life cycle of violence across prevention, early intervention, response and recovery.”

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