National Security minister says the program provides value and was “justified”
NASSAU, BAHAMASs — The ankle bracelet monitoring contract is being managed by Metro Security Solutions, a company owned by former Assistant Commissioner of Police Leon Bethel.
The program has been the subject of scrutiny over the years due to tampering and crimes being committed by individuals being monitored.
Eyewitness News understands the former administration awarded the contract, but it was not signed off on until the Davis administration took office and reviewed it.
Metro took over the contract in December.
This is the third company to manage the program in the last decade.
Migrafill Security Group previously held the contract for around six years, and ICS Security Bahamas before them.
When contacted, Minister of National Security Wayne Munroe said: “We met that done and so of course, we reviewed all contracts that recently been dealt with and that was justified because the new company is offering to outfit its own vehicles and provide response to alarms on the notifications on the ankle monitors itself rather than the Royal Bahamas Police Force having to deal with that.
“That was a value-added that I could see justified by awarding them the contract.
“Before this contract, if there was somebody who bracelet showed that needed charging and all the rest of that, they would all go into police stations and basically burn police resources.”
Munroe said: “But now the contract calls for him to maintain I think its two response vehicles at their expense to be used by the reservist or engage police officers to go and check on them, so it does not burn police resources.”
The value of the current contract remains unknown.
Munroe said he would provide the figure.
Asked if taxpayers were getting value for money from the current contract, the minister said there is value in monitoring someone who has been granted bail and knowing where they are. He also pointed to the value in not having to absorb incarceration costs.
“Both of those are things; one you can value immediately, the other, in so far as intelligence and the rest of that is concerned, is not a dollar figure price, but certainly it would be of value,” he said.
“If we, when we deal with parole, and re-entry and we move more to a sense in the community being able to use the technology to actually sentence people to house arrest effectively for periods would be value: one that would prevent people’s lives being dislocated by short sentences where no sentence plan can be put in place, and two: ease up on state resources for maintaining persons in prison.”
Munroe acknowledged that the program has received some criticism in the past as cases arose with individuals being monitored tampering with the device, committing crimes whiles being monitored or becoming victims of crimes while being monitored.
He made clear that the monitoring of individuals will not outright prevent those individuals from committing a crime, but it allows for swift tracking.
“The system alarms if you tamper with it,” he said.
“We have had issues where people say if he has an ankle bracelet, how could he end up in Canada. That’s because he was not prevented from traveling.”
He said suspects who breach the regulation of the system does not mean it is not operating.
Breaches of bail conditions is subject to bail being recalled and terms of imprisonment.
In January, an armed robbery suspect was charged with cutting off his device after Metro received an alert that the man’s ankle bracelet strap had been tampered with.
He was also charged with deceit of a public officer and violation of his bail conditions.
He was sentenced to three months on each count.
