Permanent satellite tracking for criminals

[richardm]

the 5,000 most prolific criminals in England and Wales are to be constantly satellite tracked....The fifty worst offenders in each of the 60 areas will be named and targeted, said the Home Office...As well as tagging serious offenders, the Home Office wants to track those causing a public nuisance as an alternative to jail in a "prison without bars" approach...The expanded tagging scheme will also be used for perpetrators of domestic violence and sex offenders.

Gosh. Brave new world, eh?

I must admit to feeling a bit twitchy about tagging people in that way. Civil liberties, human rights et al must be a concern. In Ye Olden Days, they'd snip off an ear or a nose to indicate that someone was a criminal. Still, I suppose it will be interesting to see if it works (it's only a pilot scheme at the moment).

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[Tmy]

We've been doing that stuff in the states for a while now. Usually in house arrest situations. THe perp wears a device on the ankle so the cops can tell if they take off.

Shoudlnt alot of these guys be in jail?? Hows a bracelet going to stop a violent wife beater or sex offender.

 

[richardm]

We've had tagging for quite a while, as an alternative to jail. The new bit appears to be that some people get to wear the tag on a permanent basis.

I'm not sure what good it's meant to do, either. If a crime is committed, do the police just round up every serial offender in the vicinity?

 

[karl]

How accurate is the tracking? Is it possible to check if a tagged person was at the scene of a crime when it took place?

 

[richardm]

I should imagine that it is as accurate as any GPS - that is, to within a few metres.

Edited to add: The tags currently in use work in conjunction with a base station in the offender's house (usually). The offenders are effectively placed under curfew. If they go out of range of the base station at the wrong time of day, the machine calls the police. These satellite tracking things are new-fangled.