Numbering among my many passions is a love for service to the Jamaican people. I have gleaned much joy and insight in my very brief time so far as Member of Parliament for the St Thomas Eastern constituency.

I am constantly reminded of the resilience, tenacity, and determination of the ordinary Jamaican as I walk through my constituency and talk with my people about how we can move St Thomas Eastern further along our path of growth and development.

I am reminded of my love for children as I see them playing football on open fields in their communities, dancing in their front yards, and playing dandy shandy in the streets. However, as I think on their futures and how I can help each of them to grow into the wonderful men and women that our society needs, I am reminded that they face many difficulties, unfortunately, a troubling one is the predators that lurk with the intention of hurting, raping, terrorising, and killing them.

In October 2021, St Thomas Eastern was rallied into the largest manhunt the parish has ever seen in search of two of our girls, Phylisa and Winshae, and their alleged callous abductor, Davian Bryan. The island was on edge as we collectively prayed for and worked toward the safe discovery of our girls and the eventual apprehension of a potential criminal. However, as I joined the community in the search and made my own prayers petitioning our Heavenly Father to return the girls safely to us, I couldn’t help but think of the importance of electronic monitoring and how, if we had such a system in place, we might have been able to locate and capture suspect Davian Bryan before he was able to get his hands on our second little girl and before the attempted abduction of an adult, albeit in another parish.

This month marks six months since my presentation to Parliament about the implementation of an electronic monitoring system for lawbreakers who are put on bail or given probation. Davian Bryan was put on bail after being charged with rape and forcible abduction of two women in Portland, was free and without supervision, enough to possibly commit similar crimes in the neighbouring parish of St Thomas. Though a hard lesson, we must learn. We must ensure that suspects or criminals are electronically monitored so we know their whereabouts should they relapse into crime.

When I speak of electronic monitoring I am referring to the use of electronic wrist or ankle bracelets that are used to monitor the location of the wearer. The Electronic Frontier Foundation refers to this as a sort of electronic incarceration. It allows those set on bail or probation their freedom, but it also allows law enforcement to be aware of their whereabouts until they are deemed no longer an active threat to society.

Electronic monitoring is not at all new. Many countries around the world employ this as part of their law enforcement systems. In the US alone, the use of e-incarceration methods, such as electronic monitoring, has gone up by over 140 per cent in just the last decade (EFF, 2021). The benefits cannot be denied.

It allows law enforcement to monitor individuals pre-trial or post-conviction and this puts less stress on prison systems. Further still, electronic monitoring allows us to track people who may otherwise try to evade the authorities or may be considered a threat to society. The relevant authorities must know where to find someone given bail, probation, or parole until they are justifiably deemed no longer a threat.

The Caribbean has not yet fully tapped into the benefits of electronic monitoring in crime prevention. In Trinidad, the Administration of Justice (Electronic Monitoring) Bill was passed in 2020. This Bill now allows for electronic monitoring to be among the strategies available to the courts and law enforcement.

Judges in Trinidadian courts now have the option of imposing sentences of electronic monitoring, instead of actual jail or prison time. This, of course, allows for prison populations to be kept low – relieving the burden on their penitentiary system.

In St Maarten, electronic monitoring was acknowledged as a catalyst for better law enforcement and crime reduction, yet it was never truly implemented.

The Curacao Chronicle (2018) notes that the St Maarten Government acquired 25 electronic monitoring devices in 2015, but even in 2018 not one of the lot was used a single time.

In 2022, the Barbadian Ministry of Home Affairs officially said that it is considering the possibility of electronically monitoring prisoners in Dodd’s Prison, St Philip.

The Cayman Islands also have in place a robust electronic monitoring system through which they were able to locate and track a group of 14 Cuban immigrants.

The novel coronavirus pandemic has slowed many things but has also given much insight on what is important, how we can leverage technology, and how we can serve people and communities remotely. Since the pandemic reached Caribbean shores, a few governments within the region introduced electronic monitoring as a way to curb community spread and to monitor those confirmed to be COVID-positive or have just landed on the island.

In Grenada, GPS trackers were given to visitors on the island or locals who have just travelled. Further still, in response to rising COVID-19 cases, the Government of St Kitts and Nevis has considered electronic monitoring, highlighting its advantages for tracking, surveillance, and security of the people and borders of the nation.

In 2017, then Minister of National Security, Robert Montaque, introduced the idea of electronic monitoring, noting that, in its first phase, it will be implemented in cases of restraining orders to ensure victim protection. Here we are some five years later, and we have made little progress. We have not yet experienced the many benefits to law enforcement as we have not implemented the system. Had we in place proper electronic monitoring infrastructure and practices, it is quite possible that the police may have been able to apprehend Davian Bryan as soon as he was named a suspect in the disappearance of our first St Thomas girl.

My hope and charge as a Member of Parliament and as a mother is that we protect our children and people. I have called already for the sexual offenders registry to be made public and I will add to that further, we must electronically monitor those that we have let out of police custody in order to guarantee that they can be found should we need to find them. We need to electronically monitor lawbreakers so there is not a repeat of last October’s events, wherein, because Bryan was not outfitted with an electronic anklet on his initial release from police custody, he was able to avoid being caught for six months.

Dental surgeon Dr Michelle Charles is Member of Parliament for St Thomas Eastern.