Minister of National Security Dr. Bernard Nottage said he wants magistrates to place greater restrictions on defendants who are outfitted with ankle bracelets to limit the areas they can travel.
"One of the things that I would like to see is for magistrates or judges, when they release these people on bail with ankle bracelets, that they restrict where they can go because if they have license to go anywhere on the island then that has consequences," he said.
Nottage said he has made an informal request to Commissioner Ellison Greenslade asking the police force to take over the monitoring of the ankle bracelet system. Local firm ICS Security Concepts currently monitors the system.
Nottage said the government's electronic ankle bracelet monitoring program has not lived up to expectations and lamented the fact that some suspects have broken out of the devices and committed crimes. He said if police begin to monitor the systems, officers would be able to better use the intelligence gathered on the defendants.
"These guys have found ways to get rid of the bracelets, but more than that many of them have been committing crimes with the bracelets," Nottage told The Nassau Guardian. "That's not acceptable and right now one of the things I am looking at is the extent to which we can improve the use of these bracelets, because surely we would have anticipated that they would have had a more positive effect than they have been having.
"There have been occasions when I feel that if they were being monitored by policemen as opposed to a private company, that the policemen would be able to use the information more positively," he added.
Nottage said he is awaiting the commissioner's response on the proposal.
In December, police alleged that a man committed murder nearly a month after he cut off his electronic monitoring bracelet.
Last July, ICS Security Concepts said five alleged criminals removed their ankle bracelets since the system was launched in late 2010. Earlier in 2012, then Minister of National Security Tommy Turnquest said more than 30 people who were being monitored used foil paper to deactivate the system.

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