The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

THE chief executive officer of the company contracted by the Ministry of National Security to provide ankle monitoring bracelets for people on bail vehemently defended the system, saying there is no fault in the devices he offers.

Leon Bethell, former assistant commissioner of police and CEO of Metro Security Solutions, was yesterday adamant that his company has never had any concerns with the monitoring devices.

He further insisted that before the company was contracted, an individual, in one instance, was not being targeted for breaching bail conditions.

 There have been reports that those being monitored have not adhered to curfew conditions. In other instances, it has been reported that the device batteries have intentionally been allowed to die and cases where some have removed the devices from their bodies.

 Last month, Police Commissioner Clayton Fernander said 38 people had been charged with breaching bail conditions.

 Another aspect of the situation is that at one point more than 50 percent of persons out on bail for murder were themselves murder victims, according to National Security Minister Wayne Munroe.

 On Monday the minister said officials were concerned about the high number of persons committing offences while being electronically monitored.

 Mr Munroe added at the time he was to schedule a meeting with the Director of Public Prosecutions in view of the recent trends of persons committing offences and being victims of crime while being monitored.

 Asked how quickly his company alerts law enforcement of persons breaking curfew, Mr Bethell explained: “There’s always an immediate alert that comes to the monitoring centre and immediately it is forwarded on to the police department.”

 The CEO pointed to individuals being brought to court for breaches when he was pressed about instances where an individual has continually broken curfew, but has not been contacted by police.

“Well, I’m not going to educate persons. Some persons who should not be educated - I’m not going to do that. I will say that if you look at the court system you will see how much people go to court every so often for breach of their bail conditions.”

 “We have never had no issue, no concerns,” Mr Bethel said. “And, I said before that there is no issue with nothing - with none of our systems - none whatsoever.

 “Once a person goes to court for a breach of their bail conditions, they would use anything that they could pull out the ground to try to evade going back to prison.

 “It has never happened before where the monitoring company go out and target every breach of bail condition and have the person arrested by the police. This has never happened before. There’s never been discussion about this before, so the persons who are being placed before the courts they know why they are crying out now to say how they are being arrested and taken back to court because the persons who you said breached bail condition they would have been taken to court.

“Every one of the matters have been reported to the police, so they could be arrested and taken back to court. They know, whoever you’re talking to, they know that prior to Metro Security Solutions being involved, they were not being targeted for breaching the bail conditions.”

 Since December of last year, Metro Security Solutions has been responsible for the monitoring devices. Previously, Migrafill Security Group had the contract.

 Recently, a 38-year-old man being electronically monitored and on bail for murder was shot dead after he allegedly attempted to rob a woman of her car.

A mother and her adult son were shot dead earlier this month and police were searching for a man on bail for murder to help them in their investigation.