By Josh Hall and Sheldon Spackman - RD News Now

Red Deer company urging ankle bracelets for monitoring repeat offenders

Oct 29, 2017 | 10:30 AM

RED DEER, AB — The push is on to bring back ankle bracelets for monitoring repeat offenders in Red Deer.

Vince Morelli, President of Red Deer-based SafeTracks GPS, which provided tech at key points in court cases of Omar Khadr and Travis Vader, says past success with ankle bracelets locally is reason enough to once again fund and use them to their full capability.

A three-year provincially-funded pilot program put ankle bracelets on more than a dozen domestic violence offenders leading to increased well-being for their victims. It officially ended in March 2013 after being extended twice, briefly.

“Domestic violence was going through the roof — there were some horrific numbers taking place in Red Deer, so a group of people, starting with the premier all the way to our MLAs Mary Anne Jablonski and Cal Dallas, we created a team to bring ankle bracelets to Red Deer,” Morelli recalls. “So when a case came to court and charges were being laid, the offender was released on a condition that he had to wear an ankle bracelet and stay away from the victim. We were able to do that by cordoning him off from different areas so there was no interaction between the offender and the victim.”

There has been no further funding for monitoring bracelets since the pilot program ended.

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“What we heard from women was that he stopped driving up and down the street four, five or 10 times a day to see who was there, what she was doing. He stopped coming around the house,” says Ian Wheeliker, Executive Director at the Central Alberta Women’s Emergency Shelter (CAWES).

“The women told us for the first time in a long time, they were able to sleep at night knowing that if he violated the no go zone, police would immediately be dispatched and hopefully avoid any further assaults or harassment.”

Now, Morelli says he’s canvassing the powers that be such as The City of Red Deer, RCMP and local and provincial politicians to see his ankle bracelets funded once again.

Morelli estimates that monitoring 20 state-of-the-art bracelets would cost $130,000 annually. His idea is for the community at large to raise the money for the first year, provide proof of success and convince the province to return funding. He suggests down the line, even offenders could pay for the bracelet as a condition of their release.

In a statement to rdnewsNOW, Red Deer RCMP acknowledge the pilot program’s effectiveness and that the feedback they received from victims was very positive.

“While the ankle bracelet pilot program wasn’t continued, it’s important to note that the Red Deer RCMP domestic violence unit continues to monitor domestic violence offenders we’ve identified as high-risk,” the statement reads. “Police officers conduct regular checks to make sure they’re complying with their conditions, and we lay charges when they aren’t.”

Paul Goranson, Director of Protective Services with The City of Red Deer, says if the province decides ankle bracelets are a useful tool, then so be it.

One person who believes in the benefits of GPS ankle bracelets is Jim Stewart, a Crown Prosecutor in the recent breach of conditions court case against Travis Vader.

He says while an ankle bracelet is unlikely to stop someone who is impulsive and uncontrollable they do provide assistance in the prosecution of offenders.

“Certainly from the perspective of being able to prove breaches of conditions of release, it made the job a lot easier because the bracelet is supported by GPS technology,” he says.

“Let’s say the police receive a complaint that three weeks ago, a person who was wearing a bracelet had attempted to interfere with the administration of justice by speaking to a witness. You would be able to go back into the bracelet data and determine exactly where the person was and so it would substantiate that allegation.”

In the case of Vader who was on bail in May 2016 while standing trial for double murder, RCMP received a call on May 10, 2016 saying Vader’s ankle bracelet wasn’t in the hotel room where he was supposed to be. RCMP and Edmonton Police eventually found him in a field on the city’s west outskirts. He’s now facing additional drug and stolen property-related charges.

Meanwhile, Morelli says domestic violence is just one part of Red Deer’s larger crime problem.

“I’m born and raised here, and I’ve seen this city go through a lot of different cycles. With the drugs we’re seeing, new drugs, with the crime rate we’re seeing, we’re losing connectivity,” he says. “Neighbourhood Watch used to be a big thing, but now we don’t even know who our neighbours are. We’re not being a community, we live in our own world and we stay in our little pod.”

Morelli believes the only way to combat said crime is to get in front of it and be proactive – in part by using ankle bracelets.