G4S to provide tech for Central America's largest electronic monitoring programme
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The programme, which is the largest of its type in Central America, will initially monitor 2,000 people with the potential to increase to 10,000 offenders over the four-year contract period. Offenders subject to home detention orders will be monitored using radio frequency technology.
The option to use global positioning system (GPS) devices brings new applications for the technology including enabling law enforcement agencies to continuously track and separate gang members from known associates and protect potential victims of domestic violence from known aggressors.
People subject to monitoring in the country of six million people, which is the smallest by land area but most densely populated in Central America, will be tracked by the Ministry of Justice and Public Security. The Ministry will also fit the devices, with the programme to start in October 2017.
G4S monitoring technologies managing director, David Byrne, said: “Today’s announcement will see our latest monitoring technology play a vital part in El Salvador’s efforts to cut crime, improve community safety and create more secure conditions for development and future prosperity.
“The planned use of the full range of electronic monitoring technology, including GPS devices to tackle gangs and protect victims of domestic abuse, establishes the system in El Salvador as one of the most sophisticated globally. It will offer innovative ways to monitor offenders subject to home detention, disrupt criminal gangs and reduce the toll of violence in the home. We look forward to working with the Government of El Salvador to deliver a successful and world-leading programme.
“This agreement underscores our position as a global leader in the provision of monitoring technology, which is designed, assembled and tested at our manufacturing hub in Leicester, UK and has now been used in more than 18 countries and territories around the world.”
