Gov't urged to use technology to alert public to the presence of sex offenders

 

With Jamaica still debating whether access to the Sex Offender Registry should be expanded, a recommendation to strategically publish those guilty of serious sexual offences is being presented.

 

Trinidad and Tobago-based attorney-at-law Jonathan Bhagan, who revealed that CARICOM has been presented with a software that could assist with identifying sexual offenders in public spaces without them being publicly named, said this could satisfy concerns about reformed offenders.

 

But he said while the technology has been "on the table for a long time", CARICOM heads have been slow in implementing it.

 

"It's the latest software from a company called Offender Watch in the USA. It is, in theory, possible to track sex offenders not with a public registry but with their cell phones, and then an app can be placed on every child's phone so that when their phone goes to GPS coordinates of a sex offender's house, the parents can get a beep. Sex offenders in the US are tracked on social media, on specific platforms right now like Snapchat, on their cell phone, email," he pointed out. 

 

He also suggested other means - such as the use of electronic bracelets or GPS collar - by which the government can actively monitor offenders within Jamaica's legal parameters while limiting the risk of vigilante justice against these individuals. 

 

"We can do GPS monitoring of sex offenders in such a way that there's a degree of anonymity. So say there are four people in our house and everybody's phone says there's a sex offender within quarter mile, 200 metres. You wouldn't know who it is in that house or in that area. There's still a risk of vigilante justice but it can be mitigated," Mr. Bhagan reasoned. 

 

He was a guest on TVJ's All Angles on Wednesday. 

 

In 2019, Trinidad and Tobago passed a law to make its Sexual Offender Registry public. 

 

The issue has again come to forefront in Jamaica following separate incidents last week including the murder of a nine-year-old girl in St. Catherine and the sexual assault of two others as they made their way home from school in Old Harbour.