Due to software update in Holland, bracelets for monitoring convicts out of order

[Brother]

Representatives of the Ministry of Justice and Security of the Netherlands (Ministerie van Justitie en Veiligheid) reported that as a result of an unsuccessful software update, they for some time lost the ability to track the whereabouts of suspects, as well as persons imprisoned under house arrest and released on bail.

The fact is that after updating the software, special bracelets that are used to monitor the location of convicts and suspects stopped working correctly and did not transmit signals to the police station. As a result, police and other officials were forced to respond quickly and detained suspects from high-risk groups. Other convicts and suspects were visited and checked, while others were asked to urgently check in at police stations or supervising officers.

The malfunction in the system was eliminated within 24 hours, and currently representatives of the Ministry of Justice and Security assure that the situation is under control.

It should be said that this is not the first such case in the practice of Dutch law enforcement officers. In August 2021, due to a massive outage in the work of cellular operators, the monitoring system for suspects and convicts also actually went offline. Then the Dutch Ministry of Justice reported that it temporarily "lost sight of" about 450 people out of 700, who were being monitored.