The petition calls for high-risk domestic abuse perpetrators or suspects released on bail to have their location monitored using GPS equipment.
This could include individually assessed exclusion zones around victims, homes or workplaces and alerts, triggering police responses, when conditions are breached.
Mike Nellis, emeritus professor of Criminal and Community Justice at the University of Strathclyde and one of the UK’s leading experts on electronic monitoring, said it was perfectly feasible to introduce such a system.
He said it could work by setting an exclusion zone around a victim’s home that triggered an alert if an abuser violated it, although the zone would have to be sufficiently large to allow time for police to get there first.
Prof Nellis said that while Scotland has been slow to embrace GPS technology, the campaign could now find itself “pushing at an open door” because ministers are actively exploring ways of reducing the prison population.
However, he cautioned that no system was foolproof.
“I think probably every jurisdiction that has used it has at one point in time had an offender who still managed to assault, injure or kill the victim,” he told BBC Scotland News.
“It’s a helpful solution but it’s not perfect.”
He also added that some women’s support groups have in the past voiced concern that such systems might give a false sense of security.
