Former child abuse royal commissioner Bob Atkinson says the "door should be kept open" on Queensland's use of GPS trackers for youth offenders, despite only 15 children having been fitted with the devices in an ongoing trial.
A trial to use the devices is underway in Townsville, north Brisbane, Moreton, Logan and the Gold Coast, and is due to be expanded to Cairns, Mount Isa and Toowoomba from June.
The age of eligibility will also be lowered from 16 to 15 years.
Bob Atkinson, who sat on the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, this week told a University of Southern Queensland conference that changes to bail laws for youth offenders had resulted in the low number of offenders being referred to the trial.
He said the use of GPS trackers could improve to help keep young offenders out of detention.
"It's my view that we shouldn't close the door on that possibility, and we should keep it open," Mr Atkinson said.
A Queensland Department of Children, Youth Justice and Multicultural Affairs spokesperson confirmed that 15 young people had been fitted with electronic monitoring devices as part of their bail conditions since the trial began in 2021.
"Ultimately, courts make decisions about which measures to apply based on the information before them, while also considering a young person's risk of reoffending," the spokesperson said.
Mr Atkinson, who served as Queensland's police commissioner for 12 years between 2000 and 2012, said while there had been issues with electronic monitoring devices such as battery life, they could be improved.
"We should not throw the concept out … with improvements in technology it could be a useful tool into the future," he said.
Sweeping changes were made to the youth justice system in March, including making breach of bail an offence for children, and making it harder for young people to get bail.
Mr Atkinson said it was still too early to assess the effectiveness of the changes.
"It's a complex issue and I don't think there is a single or simple solution … it's going to be a long time," he said.
A 'flimsy policy'
Opposition police spokesperson Dale Last said previous concerns about the implementation of ankle monitors had proven to be true.
"At the time the LNP supported ankle monitors but were on the record with serious concerns that the flimsy policy would be ineffective as long as youth criminals were given the choice about wearing them," he said.
"Two years later and these concerns have turned out to be true, as youth crime spirals out of control and the government is in chaos and crisis, with no answers."
A state government statistician's office report in April found that while recent statistics had shown the number of people committing crimes had decreased, they were committing more offences and more serious offences.
Mr Last said the Queensland Opposition had different ideas to address youth crime.
"In its latest plan, the chaotic [Annastacia] Palaszczuk Labor government has again failed to deliver the real reform Queenslanders are crying out for," he said.
"In contrast, the LNP has put forward three solutions to start tackling youth crime, including … removing detention as a last resort and making genuine steps toward gold standard early intervention."
Mr Atkinson said he wanted to see youth crime back on the Council of Australian Governments' agenda, to address the disproportionate rates of First Nations people represented in the penal system.
"We need to do all we can to bring those numbers back to the same as the rest of the population," he said.
