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| Prisoner tags set to foil baby snatchers |
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| By ALISON STENT
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| Research Reporter |
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| A TRACKING device meant for keeping tabs on errant prisoners is now being modified to foil baby snatchers. |
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| Marius Pels, head of the company that developed the radio frequency signalling device for the Correctional Services Department a few years ago, said selected prisoners were fitted with bracelets at two Medium A prisons. |
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| "It has a tamper detection capability, so that an alarm sounds if someone tries to take it off or damage it." |
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| He said a few months ago his company, Exponªnt, had been approached by a hospital group in Gauteng that was concerned about babies being illicitly removed from its care.
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| "The prisoner bracelets have tags about the size of a matchbox, so of course we'll be making them much smaller." |
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| He said most of that size was taken up by the battery, which needed recharging only every five years. |
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| "The baby device will also have a fingerprint detection device linking the parents to the babies. When the baby is ready to leave the hospital the bracelet is simply removed, sterilised and re-used." |
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| The system, known as the Radio Frequency Identification Device, comes at an initial outlay of about R400 per bracelet - but after that, costs are minimal, he explained. "And that price includes the radio base station and antennae, which pick up signals in a 30-metre radius." |
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| Val Sterrenberg, who manages specialist units at St Dominic's Hospital in East London, said the subject had come up at management meetings. "We've never had that problem here, but one must be proactive. Why tempt fate?" |
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| However, Adrian Oelofse, spokesperson for the East London Hospital Complex (Frere and Cecilia Makiwane),
said the device was unlikely to interest his hospitals. "There's never
been an incident that I know of here. In fact it's the other way round -
people leave babies here, they don't take them away." |
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