NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Minister of National Security, Wayne Munroe yesterday said he plans to meet with officials from the Department of Public Prosecutions and the Royal Bahamas Police Force to deal with the issue of bail tampering with their ankle bracelets.
Munroe noted many of the persons committing crimes and the victims of murder tend to be persons being monitored.
“That is a concern for us and that is a concern that we will be meeting with the office of the DPP to determine how they will be articulating our concern to the courts because the courts act on the material you put before them,” he said.
Munroe explained bail conditions differ from case to case which may affect tracking.
“It depends on the bail conditions, some persons will have curfews imposed some will not,” he said.
“Some will have a condition that they’ll not leave New Providence some will not.”
The National Security minister confirmed the company that provides the bracelets is Metro Security. He said that there seems to be a consistency of individuals tampering with the bracelets, but opted not to explain how for security reasons.
A number of people out of the large pool of those being monitored are also brought back to court on a weekly basis for not charging their ankle devices. Munroe said just last week there were six individuals taken to court for breaching bail in this way.
“That’s a violation, every week I get a report of the amount of people who report back to court because they didn’t charge their monitor and they breach their bail,” he said.
“And a lot of them are being awarded the privilege of us knowing exactly where they are at the Bahamas Department of Corrections.”
Munroe explained that while they are concerned about limitations and seek to address issues with the frequency of persons committing offences while being monitored, the bracelets aid in helping to solve crimes and identify victims who are murdered while on bail.
Munroe said: “The monitor just monitors where you are, it doesn’t monitor your mind […] so if somebody is robbed and we find that there is somebody who is at the exact spot of the robbery with a monitor at the time the robbery is taking place that’s a fairly good suspect.
”[…] If an offense is committed it tells us who they are.”
“Persons on bail should have sufficient sense to know that you can play smart if you wish but certainly our position will be if you breech the terms on which you were bailed you should then be somewhere where we know where you are 24 hours a day seven days a week.”
