Criminals are going to extraordinary lengths to commit smash and grabs and ram raids by wrapping tinfoil around their ankle bracelets to avoid detection, according to an internal police report.
NZ Herald obtained a copy of the police risk assessment report, EM Bail - Foiling and Monitoring Limitations, which showed the electronic monitoring (EM) regime for community-based offenders and bailees was "easily circumvented by motivated individuals", through the 'foiling' technique.
"The public and judiciary are likely of the opinion that offenders on EM are closely monitored at all times, this cannot confidently be assured by the current system," the report states.
Frontline police in Canterbury are regularly encountering youth criminals doing ram raids who they believed were on EM bail, according to the report.
"What was of concern was that although these people were subject to EM bail, police had not been notified by Corrections that they were breaching their conditions."
Following investigations, it was found the suspects were foiling their tracking devices.
"In doing so, they were able to leave their place of residence undetected and re-offend," the report says.
The report contained several photos of youth offenders with their tracking devices wrapped in tinfoil. It also outlined other issues, including that the number of people being monitored electronically had "grown faster than the level of staffing at Corrections and they are struggling to meet demand".
There are 1809 people on EM bail around New Zealand, up from 510 in 2018. The increase coincided with a 197 percent rise in breaches, according to the report.
When offenders wrap tinfoil around their ankle bracelet, it generates an alert that is similar to the regular intermittent loss of signal alerts, which Corrections receives "a lot of", the report says.
Corrections had set a time threshold for the first alert of 80 minutes from the loss of signal, but concerningly, the report found the alerts might not be checked at that time because of the volume of alerts received.
"People on bail with a geofenced boundary around a victim can easily circumvent it before an alert is received and triaged (if one is received at all)," the report said.
"This has multiple implications on bail address considerations - specifically within the same geographical area of a victim."
The report also included specific examples of people putting tinfoil around their ankle bracelets to commit crimes.
One detailed a man who foiled his tracker and went to his ex-partner's house where he allegedly tried to stab her before fleeing the scene and cutting off his ankle bracelet. The EM bail team was unaware the man had left his bail address until police contacted them. The man was on the run for three-and-a-half weeks until he was found.
Other examples provided in the report were of youths as young as 14 committing ram raids and smash-and-grab burglaries.
Inspector Andrew Fabish, the director of deployment at police, told NZ Herald the report was an "internal document" produced to help consider how they might "best deploy resource to keep communities safe".
"Some of the points in the report do not take into account the national picture of electronically-monitored bail and the ongoing shared work by police and Corrections," he said.
A new police national bail co-ordination role, which would focus on EM bail, would be embedded with Corrections from early September, Insp Fabish said.
"The impact of this role and associated support staff from police will enable smoother connections between both organisations to better monitor those on EM bail, assess the risk of those who have absconded, and respond accordingly," Fabish said.
"Some people on bail, including EM bail, will inevitably attempt to breach their conditions, and no monitoring system is 100 percent foolproof."
