The recent suggestion by Commissioner of Police Erla Harewood- Christopher for increased usage of electronic GPS tracking devices on repeat offenders is long overdue.

It is a well-known fact that many of these repeat offenders make no effort to reform themselves and are caught in a cycle of having to pay more and more legal fees, hence resorting to a life of more violent crime and providing their services to gang bosses who are ever willing to hire them to ‘put down a wuk’.

The facts are quite simple: when a criminal offender is outfitted with a tracking device, he will be immediately ostracised by his peers and have no choice but to steer the straight path.

He will no longer be welcomed by fellow criminal friends and family. More importantly, no gang boss will want anybody with a tracking device near them.

No number of social programmes or pleas to put down guns by those in authority will have the same effect on these young criminal minds.

Instead of spending hundreds of millions of dollars each year on CCTV cameras (and staff) which keep breaking down, it would be much better value to institute a massive increase in use of these electronic GPS tracking devices.

J Deering
Maraval