The chief of police in England and Wales proposed to tie WiFi jammers to the ankles of cyber criminals instead of putting them in jail. This is a time-limited measure that allows justice to avoid sending juvenile offenders to prison while avoiding re-offending. However, agreed in principle, experts doubt whether simple WiFi interference is effective.
At a meeting of the Association of Police Chiefs (in the French Police Association), the president of the Association proposed new penalties for cybercriminals and criminals. For the department commissioner (and Gavin Thomas, the president of the association), justice must stop sending cybercriminals to prison, and more technology should be used.
In particular, it recommends connecting a wifi jammer to the ankle of an electronic criminal, just like using an electronic bracelet. According to him, what prevented them from discovering themselves on the Internet. He explained:
We must stop using 19th century punishments for 21st century crimes. It costs £38,000 [43,780 euros, note] for a person to go to jail for a year, but if you look at statistics, especially short sentences, the recidivism rate is very high
Although, in principle, avoiding cybercriminals in jail, including in terms of the economic arguments put forward, seems to be a good thing, it is not certain whether interference with WiFi signals is sufficient to prevent Internet access. It is also possible to hijack these devices, which may also punish those who are directly accompanying the convicted person.
In addition, the departmental commissioner seems to have forgotten the existence of Ethernet cables. But for him, this sentence is especially aimed at young cyber criminals:
This can be introduced as part of a sentence so that 16-year-olds cannot access the Internet or WiFi for a certain period of time, after which they must use some form of more traditional work in the community. We can ask them to follow ethics and values-centric procedures to understand how to behave online, which is an aspect that I am missing now.