The Department of Probation plans to apply electronic monitoring (EM) devices to teenage parolees in a few months.
Ruenvadee Suwanmongkol, director-general of the department, said her organisation will seek court permission to use EM tags with about 200 teenage and underage traffic violators in Bangkok. They would target mainly young and miscreant motorcyclists.
The trial will last 3-6 months and the department will later consider if such devices should be applied in general.
Probation authorities from Southeast Asian nations and some countries outside the region discussed the application of EM tags in Bangkok yesterday.
Officers from Singapore and South Korea shared their experiences of the tags.
South Korean probation chief Ilsuk Noh said EM tags cut the percentage of the wrongdoers who repeat their offences from 14.8% to 2.3%.
Bernadette Alexander, from Singapore, said EM devices required effective tracking systems and Singapore applied several technologies to ensure they worked well.
Ms Ruenvadee said the Justice Ministry has formed a committee to study the use of EM devices. It has set up two sub-committees. The technology sub-committee is studying the pros and cons of EM tags that use global positioning systems and radio frequency identification systems.
It will propose a suitable system to the committee and then an electronic auction will be organised to find a supplier.