Criminals tracked from outer space

Published on 30 August 2011 at 12:29

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Frankfurter Rundschau announces that former criminals will soon be "held prisoner by satellites." On 30 August, several Länder [Federal Regions] are to join forces to launch a project for an electronic surveillance command centre. The centre, which is to be established in Hesse, will be operational by 2012. The German daily explains that the priority target for the new monitoring technology will be newly released detainees who present a risk of perpetrating repeat offences. The former prisoners will be obliged to wear electronic bracelets that can be tracked by satellite — and by the police, although the newspaper warns that the initiative should not be used to justify a reduction in their numbers.For its part Berliner Zeitung argues that the plan to introduce a centralised system is a “reasonable” one, but it is not without its weaknesses: “the electronic bracelets do not guarantee security, they consume large amounts of energy, and are dependent on GPS technology which is occasionally unreliable. Monitoring staff will know where criminals are located, but they will not know what they are doing.”

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