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Satellite tracking system to monitor convicts
Mar 24, 2007
CBC News
Twenty-five people under house arrest in the Halifax region are about to have their every movements tracked by a global positioning system. Some provinces already use radio tracking bracelets to let police know when an offender is at home. But after the first device is activated on Wednesday, government officials say Nova Scotia will be the only province to use satellite-tracking technology to follow offenders wherever they go.
Chris McNeil, deputy chief of the Halifax Regional Police, said the GPS tracking devices will do what police officers cannot. "If you consider that in my own jurisdiction, there are 250 people on any given day on house arrest, I simply don't have the resources to monitor those people," he said.
People under house arrest haven't necessarily been ordered to stay in their homes. Some are allowed to leave to go to work or school, for example, while others have been ordered to obey a curfew or stay away from certain places.
Each offender in the Nova Scotia pilot project will wear an electronic bracelet on their ankle and carry a GPS recording device around their waist. Their movements will then be tracked 24 hours a day by Safe Harbour Security, a Halifax-based company. With this system, police will know whether offenders are violating the conditions of their release.
Safeharbour will know if an offender is walking by a house he's been ordered to stay away from, for example. The company will alert the police. Nova Scotia's minister of justice, Murray Scott, said the program could be expanded across the province if the pilot project is successful.
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