- Eight boroughs to pilot new satellite scheme, first of its kind in UK
Satellite tagging technology will be used to monitor the capital’s most prolific offenders in the first scheme of its kind in the UK, launched today (Wednesday 22 March) by the Mayor of London.
Magistrates in eight London boroughs can now order the wearing of GPS tags as part of a community or suspended sentence, enabling the offender’s whereabouts to be known.
Sadiq Khan has made tackling reoffending and supporting victims a priority. Adult reoffending costs London £2.25 billion a year, accounting for 69 per cent of the total criminal justice system spend. Overall reoffending rates for London stand at 24 per cent, but London’s 4,000 most prolific offenders have predicted reoffending rates of around 82 per cent.
The £150,000 GPS pilot is part of the Mayor’s wider work to test new ways to tackle persistent offenders, reduce the cost to the justice system and cut crime, as set out in his new Police and Crime Plan published on Monday.
The tags gather data to monitor an offender’s compliance with their court order or bail conditions, alerting probation officers if these are breached. This could include entering an exclusion zone or failing to attend mandated appointments. For the first time the London trial will enable the police to use this information for crime mapping, providing information on an offender’s location at a specific date and time to identify whether they could have been at the scene of a crime.
The pilot, in the North and East London Local Justice Areas, aims to make between 75 and 100 prolific offenders subject to GPS tagging, with young adults and female offenders a priority. They will be monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week and face a potential prison sentence if they breach the terms of their court order.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “I’ve put the needs of victims and the most vulnerable Londoners at the heart of my new Policing and Crime Plan, and a crucial part of this is tackling the enormous problem of reoffending in the capital. These tags will monitor the offenders that cause the most harm to communities and greatest expense to the justice system, while also helping to detect whether someone was present at the scene of a crime and supporting victims by alerting probation officers if conditions are breached.
“Progress is being made in developing services to support offenders when they leave prison and provide an alternative to custody, but more needs to be done. This pilot is the first of its kind in the country and highlights the importance of criminal justice decisions being made locally, rather than by central government. I will continue to work with the Government to agree a devolution deal which gives us the power to tailor services to the needs of the capital, helping to cut reoffending and make London a safer place for everyone.”
Metropolitan Police Commander (Territorial Policing) Neil Jerome said: “Tackling those offenders who cause the most harm is a key priority for keeping London safe. We know there are a small number of offenders who repeatedly commit offences. Working with our partners across London we use a range of tactics to tackle their offending and this initiative will play an important part in reducing offending and preventing people falling victim to crime.
Today, the Mayor also announced an additional £620,000 to extend his wider criminal justice programme for a further 18 months. This work, by the Mayor’s Office for Policing And Crime (MOPAC), the Ministry of Justice, London Community Rehabilitation Company, National Probation Service and health, court and voluntary services aims to provide a multi-agency response to offenders causing the most harm to communities and the greatest demand on the criminal justice system. The extension will allow time to test commissioned services, trial new approaches to offender management, and evaluate these initiatives.
The Mayor’s wider criminal justice programme, of which the GPS tags pilot is a part, is taking place in Camden, Enfield, Haringey, Islington, Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest.
Notes to editors
- The MOPAC GPS tags pilot will run until March 2018, with GPS monitoring running until September 2018.
- The first order was imposed on Monday 20th March – the first day that it was available – using a requirement for whereabouts monitoring as part of a package of rehabilitative and restrictive measures.
- In a UK first, the GPS tags pilot also enables the police to access data from the tags to use for crime mapping - providing information on an offender’s location at a specific date and time to identify whether they could have been at the scene of a crime.
- Data from the tags is captured continuously and looked at when required.
- The £150,000 funding for the GPS tags pilot is from the Home Office Innovation Fund, received in 2016.
- The additional £620,000 will build on the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime’s work to provide a ‘whole system response’ to offenders causing the most harm to communities and the greatest demand on the criminal justice system. So far it has introduced:
- An enhanced offender management service for 18-25 year olds providing increased supervision, cognitive behaviour therapy and family intervention.
- Increased resources to support greater co-ordination between prisons and the community.
- Specialist mental health nurses.
- Increased resources for Courts to support quicker and more tailored sentencing.
- Tailored female offender services including employment support for those coming out of prison.
- Increased intelligence capacity to support sharing of information between Police, Probation and boroughs.
- The Mayor’s Police and Crime Plan can be found here: https://www.london.gov.uk/mopac-publications/police-and-crime-plan-2017-2021