PRIME Minister Philip ‘Brave' Davis and Police Commissioner Clayton Fernander. Photo: Dante Carrer
By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS
Tribune Staff Reporter
lmunnings@tribunemedia.net
POLICE Commissioner Clayton Fernander said people on bail for serious crimes have been able to remove their ankle bracelets easily with just a paper clip –– a concerning fact for authorities angered about people on bail committing serious crimes.
During a press conference yesterday, Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis said the work of the company electronically monitoring the people on bail is now under review because of reports that the system is failing.
Authorities note that people on bail for serious crimes comprise a large number of perpetrators and victims of violent crimes. Some of them have been found without their ankle bracelets. Others have had their batteries uncharged.
Mr Davis told reporters during a press conference yesterday: “The discussion that was had with the commissioner of police was that we need to review the arrangements we have with that company and to determine whether or not they are fit for the purpose going forward.”
“It is unacceptable that we rely on the monitoring bracelets, which are embraced for a specific purpose, and that is to monitor persons on bail to ensure that they do not commit further offences, to be able to track them, to ensure that they will be around for their trial.
“What we are hearing is that that is failing, and failure is not an option in our fight against crime. It is a complex issue, and we need to have tools that are effective to enable us to dismantle the issues that impact crime.”
The ankle monitoring bracelet provides the location of people, some of whom have curfew requirements to meet.
Earlier this month, Mr Munroe said Commissioner Fernander would meet leaders of the company responsible for the monitoring system, Metro Security Solutions, to discuss their issues.
Yesterday, Commissioner Fernander said the company is now adjusting the bracelet because police found that people being electronically monitored can remove their devices with a paper clip.
“One of the individuals that we arrested, we had him do a demo on how he got his monitoring device off, and we recorded it, and I had a meeting now with the company so that they could view that device now to strengthen that to ensure that it doesn’t happen again,” he said.
“But it would be amazing if you were to see how easily the individual was able to take that off with a paper clip, just with a paper clip!”
Carlos Reid, a consultant in the Ministry of National Security, told The Tribune last year that Metro Security Solutions is doing an ineffective job monitoring people on bail.
The company’s president, Orion Bethel, countered that police don’t always respond to notifications about people breaking bail conditions.
Mr Munroe defended the company in the past, saying he hadn’t received complaints from the Royal Bahamas Police Force about defects with the monitoring system. He said the lack of official complaints meant police were satisfied with the service.
He noted that if breaches were found with Metro Security Solutions, the contract could be terminated.
Comments
stillwaters 10 months, 4 weeks ago
He noted that if breaches were found with Metro Security Solutions, From reading this news brief, it seems that this has already been established......there are unacceptable breaches. A cheap bracelet that can be opened with a paper clip, when this contract is worth millions? Just go ahead now and give it to another poorly qualified PLP. Why go through all this when that will probably be the bottom line here. We are so sick of all these political favours being given to the incompetent, corrupt, greedy people.
ExposedU2C 10 months, 4 weeks ago
It's not the bracelets that are failing the country.......it's Davis and his cronies who are failing the country!
sheeprunner12 10 months, 4 weeks ago
How come these same gadgets can work in First World countries, but they can't work here???
Even though we pay MILLIONS of dollars for the same technology??????
Sickened 10 months, 4 weeks ago
Other countries don't have the same sophisticated paper clips that we apparently have. We must get our from Switzerland!
Sickened 10 months, 4 weeks ago
I can't believe that Brave and the police actually said all of this. Maybe they are too stupid to realize how embarrassing this is? Or maybe they are so desperate to give a different crony this contract that they don't care. Does Ashley Furniture provide ankle bracelet monitoring???
mandela 10 months, 4 weeks ago
"Broughtupsy" is taught in the home and not abroad, criminals are also brought up in the home, so the homes where these criminals were brought up should first be blamed for the state of crime. The police nor the government can be blamed for the criminals that were brought up in these homes.
stillwaters 10 months, 4 weeks ago
I agree...whole families, from the grandmother downward living off the thieving of these young male family members..... and off the prostitution of young female family members.
John 10 months, 3 weeks ago
Is that what happens in your family? Most certainly you are telling the truth.
John 10 months, 3 weeks ago
Yes that is is quite evident. That is why parents of a 15 year old ( in the UNITED STATES) who took a gun they had purchased and taught him to use ane now on trial for multiple murders. After their barely teen son took the gun to school and killed multiple school mates!The US is our close neighbor and ‘ big brother’ and this so called ‘third world country’ must follow their lead. Maybe it’s time for The Bahamas to have shooting ranges that include high powered rifles and a kiddie section where parents of teens can book birthday parties and other special/events celebrations and SHOOT the night ( or the day) away!
TalRussell 10 months, 4 weeks ago
It just murders me --- To see the but one to, two generations, counting backwards --- Once Disenfranchised set of Politicians', Lawyers' and Judges', --- Who grew up in The Colony's --- Most Disenfranchised Communities, ---- Now being in favour of --- More strengthening of The Colony's ---- The unfair, unjust Cash Bail System, along with - -- Brungin' back --- Thee Hangman's Noose'. --- [And I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment]. --- Yes?
John 10 months, 3 weeks ago
Maybe you can dig a little deeper and find out why crime and especially murder is so segregated and apartheid in this country and so many countries in the Caribbean. How is it that so many millions of tourists and visitors can come to these islands and be safe ( some say they feel safer than when they are home in their own city and country) but the native inhabitants of these islands are riddled with crime? And 95 percent of the murders in The Bahamas and the Caribbean are committed with an American made weapon. And if the supremist attitude of a number of posts on here is any indication, counties in this region must now reevaluate their plans to keep their citizens safe and alive. How long O Lord, How long?
John 10 months, 4 weeks ago
If the US State Department can put out advisories, year after year about tThd BaHAMAS, then the US media can fill their reports against The Bahamas with exaggerations and half truths with clear intentions of discouraging travel to this country, so much so that Even American citizens are in shock and dismay on seeing the reports. If two top US agencies can LOSE hundreds of AK assault rifles ( called Russian weapons but assembled in Florida) that they are supposed to be tracking and monitoring. To identify gun smugglers in Mexico and The Caribbean then claim the t batteries on the tracking devices only lasted two to three hours AND if these weapons were placed in the back trunk of a vehicle or in some other metal storage area they could not be tracked, do you HONESTLY think you can trust an American company to supply ankle monitors that are not compromised, can’t be breeched and otherwise tampered with? Like Pindling told Brian Ross two decades ago when he tried to put the cocaine epidemic on The Bahamas. You expect a lil small country like The Bahamas to do what a big add country, like America can’t do with all its resources? You gat to be kidding! Stop lighting fires and pretending to help put them out!
John 10 months, 3 weeks ago
And remember too MOST, MOST of the victims of murder who the police claim ‘were known to them’ or ‘ were wearing ankle monitors at the time they were gunned down’. WERE NOT in VIOLATION of thTHEIR BAIL! Their monitors were intact and charged and functioning properly and they were either at home, leaving home, arriving home or some at work or in a place or doing activities the conditions of their bail allowed them to do. So not only are the ankle monitors being easily breeched by persons with criminal intent, but they seem to be a death sentence to persons outfitted with them and abiding by the law. So this begs the question: is the data or monitoring information also breeched and compromised? Who, besides authored personal is accessing the monitoring data and tracking down unsuspecting targets and executing them?
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