Electronic anti-stalking bracelet, requests on the rise but critical issues emerge

Since January 2024, the number of anti-stalking electronic bracelets requested monthly has increased 25-fold: from 20 to 500. What caused the surge was the approval in November 2023 of Law 168/2023 ('Enhanced Code Red') for the measures provided for in Articles 282 bis and 282 ter of the Code of Criminal Procedure and Article 4, i-ter of the Anti-Mafia Code. This is stated in the 'Report on remote control devices for precautionary and preventive measures' drafted by the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry on Femicide and all forms of gender violence.

In the three-year period 2019-2022, in fact, monthly requests amounted to 426 out of 1200 available devices and thus absorbed 35.5 per cent of the supply. The activations, however, were almost entirely for devices for house arrest or home detention. In fact, in 2020 out of 5631 bracelets put into operation only 218 responded to the need to protect victims of gender-based violence, domestic violence or violence against women. The situation had also remained virtually unchanged the following year, 2021, when out of 5620 activated devices only 266 had a antistalking value. The monthly average of activated wristbands protecting victims of violence, in fact, until November 2023 was 20 applications, i.e. 4 per cent of the total amount.

The approval of Law 168/2023, however, has radically changed the picture, causing some critical issues, starting with the quantitative question. The maximum number of devices applicable monthly is insufficient, to the point that the threshold is exceeded in the first half of the month. This leads to waiting times that are sometimes irreconcilable with high risk situations. Secondly, technical criticalities have emerged, such as a long battery life that is not always adequate, the dependence on the mobile radio signal that is not uniform across the territory and, in the case of reduced coverage, a lower accuracy or the impossibility of geolocation.

Difficulties are also reported in the management of alarms, which are spread in too high a number with consequent overloading of the territorial operational rooms also in conjunction with the absence of priority filters. And finally, some procedural flaws complicate the picture, such as the lack of uniform operational guidelines at national level and information flows that are not always standardised.

Finally, according to the report, there is a risk of over-reliance on the technical instrument in cases with profiles of high dangerousness.