The Queensland government is putting their money where their mouth is. Premeir Kristina Keneally unveiled a complex plan to combat sexual and domestic violence, which would cost the state an estimated $15.6 million. $13.7 million of which will be delegated to fitting GPS tracking devices to high-risk sex offenders in the region, over four years. The Queensland government has been in talks for more than a year of enforcing 24/7 surveillance of the worst tier of sex offenders, but only recently were awarded a contract which would supply them with the required GPS devices.
According to Queensland’s corrective services minister, Neil Roberts, ABAKUS Elmotech will be Queensland Correctional Services (QCS) primary GPS supplier beginning in November of 2011. “As part of the procurement process, QCS conducted a week-long trial [that]. . . tested four GPS devices in a range of areas and under a number of conditions,” said Roberts. “This included testing exclusion zones, which when fitted to offenders will include places such as schools, to test whether an alert would be sent to QCS.”
Roberts stressed that the testing process for the devices was incredibly thorough. “QCS also tested the signal strength of devices in areas such as the city, tunnels and regional locations.” He goes on to explain that in addition to recording the offender’s movements along with the established alert system, the GPS signals will be monitored by a dedicated, trained team around the clock. “All sex offenders fitted with GPS will be tracked on a 24/7 basis, with a specialist surveillance team working around the clock to monitor their movements,” said Roberts.
The Queensland government is also following through on its promise made in early 2011, to require GPS tracking of high-risk domestic violence offenders. Although tracking sex offenders took a higher priority over domestic violence offenders, law makers know that protecting the state’s children also includes protecting them from violence in their own homes. As of now, the government is working on negotiations to give state courts the power to enforce GPS tracking on the more violent domestic cases.
Article Written by Marisa O’Connor
