ACT Government Drops Plan to Use Tracking Bracelets on Domestic Violence Offenders

The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) government has cancelled a plan to make domestic violence offenders wear electronic ankle bracelets. The bracelets would have tracked where offenders were at all times using GPS technology. The government announced the plan in 2024 but has now decided it costs too much to run. This means the scheme will not go ahead during the current term of government.

ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr first announced the tracking bracelet plan in 2024. He made the announcement after a national summit that focused on the serious problem of domestic and family violence in Australia. The idea was to keep a close eye on offenders while they lived in the community, instead of sending them to prison. Many people had hoped the plan would help keep victims safer.

The Justice and Community Safety (JACS) directorate looked into how the scheme would work. Officials found that monitoring even a small number of offenders could cost more than four million dollars a year. If the bracelets were used specifically for domestic and family violence offenders, that cost could rise to eighteen million dollars a year. Because of these high costs, the government decided not to move forward with the plan.

ACT Corrections Minister Caitlin Tough said the size of the ACT made the scheme too expensive to run fairly. She admitted she did not have exact figures on how that cost compared with keeping offenders in prison. She said the government and the whole community were deeply troubled by the rise in domestic violence across the country. But for now, the cost made electronic monitoring too difficult to put in place.

Not everyone agreed the bracelets would have made victims safer, however. Sue Webeck, the chief executive of the Domestic Violence Crisis Service (DVCS) in the ACT, said her organisation was never asked for its opinion on the plan. She said that if they had been consulted, she would have raised concerns about whether the technology actually works. She had heard of cases in other states where victims still did not feel safe, even though their abusers were being monitored with bracelets.

Ms Webeck worried that the bracelets might give victims a false sense of security. She called this an 'illusion of safety,' meaning people might feel protected when they are not truly out of danger. She also pointed out that support services like DVCS hold very little power in the system. She felt it was important that experts on the ground be included in decisions like these from the very beginning.

Police were unhappy with the government's decision to drop the plan. Troy Roberts from the Australian Federal Police Association said ACT officers were 'quite disappointed' the scheme had been shelved. He said electronic monitoring would have helped police keep track of serious offenders, including those on bail. Mr Roberts noted that in New South Wales and South Australia, offenders who were electronically monitored were less likely to reoffend, which is known as having a low recidivism rate.

Mr Roberts also said the GPS technology in the bracelets would have been very useful in specific situations. For example, some offenders on bail are not allowed to leave their homes at night, and the bracelets would have confirmed whether they followed that rule. Without the technology, police have fewer tools to check up on dangerous offenders in the community. The debate over cost versus safety is likely to continue as domestic violence remains a serious concern across Australia.