Latest news with #tagging
Yahoo
a day ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
AFL fans divided over Nick Diacos' tagging treatment as celebration detail emerges
St Kilda's efforts to tag Nick Daicos have been labelled as a 'step too far' with the Collingwood midfielder's maturity highlighted amid the rough tactics. Daicos had to contend with one of his more challenging nights on Saturday after tagger Marcus Windhager got stuck into the Magpies star in Collingwood's 16.12 (108) to 11.8 (74) win. Despite the tactic, Daicos was the best on ground with 30 possessions and his crucial last-term goal left Windhager and his teammates demoralised. And while Daicos emerged with a smile on his face after getting the better of the duel, not all were impressed with the tactics. North Melbourne great David King understood it was the expectations of a tagger to frustrate Daicos and push him into making a mistake. One clip showed Windhager appearing to knee Daicos off the ball. And King felt the AFL might need to step in if it ramps up with the potential of injuring a superstar doing damage to the game. 'This is the sort of stuff that's going on. Little knees to the back of the hamstrings. I think that's too far,' King said on Saturday on Fox Sports. 'Taggers do anything to get under the skin ... just little things that are a step too far. (The knees) are a no-go, I think that's outside the code ... If that's happened 15-20 times, I'd expect a call from the AFL. We've got to look after our star-factor players. The game owes these players some sort of protection.' And it was this sentiment that prompted Collingwood coach Craig McRae to praise his players for stepping in and defending Daicos so he wasn't fighting the battle on his own. "There was always going to be a lot of cameras on it (the tag). The spotlight was on it," he said. "We don't want him to fight the battles, we'll fight them for him. "He didn't need to get caught up in the wrestle of that. As a team, we want to look after him. You'd say his performance was pretty impactful and then the way we looked after Nick, I was more proud than what we have (done) in recent times." But after weeks of suggestions Daicos needed to be tagged, questions are being asked if it was over the top. Although Daicos himself didn't have an issue having praised Windhager after the tussle. "Windhager has done some great jobs this year and I knew coming in would be a tough night," Daicos said to Fox Sports. "It's about how I can open up space for my teammates. I thought I was able to do that. I love playing in the midfield." And it was this tactical adjustment that prompted Rory Sloane to label him as one of the 'smartest' players in the comp. It's not the tagging it's the kneeing him in the legs and the pinching that pisses me off, and shouldn't the tagger at least have to pretend he is looking at the ball? — Garry (@i_hate_dan1) June 21, 2025 Speaking on Channel Nine, Sloane broke down how the tagging on Daicos allowed the Collingwood midfielder to open up space for his teammates. During the stoppages, Daicos was heavily marked. Although Sloane pointed out he was backing off and opening up channels for his teammates to run through. "Most teams don't tag because they feel like it pulls apart their structure. And last night it certainly pulled apart St Kilda's structure, particularly around centre bounce," Sloane said. "He is one of the smartest players in the comp..." Sloane felt Daicos was the stand out performer, especially in the fourth quarter. And while he could have celebrated to taunt Windhager after being tagged the whole game, Sloane felt it showed the young star's maturity to remain calm and walk away from the drama. "I think his whole game was enormous. His ability to stand up late in the last, and finish the goal. Not only celebration afterwards showed his maturity," Sloane said. "Didn't go at Marcus, he just got on with the game." Collingwood remained first on the ladder with 48 points, while St Kilda dropped to 15th. "He's one of the smartest players in the comp."Rory Sloane with the vision of how Nick Daicos used Marcus Windhager's tag to create space for teammates.#9AFLSFS | Watch on Nine & 9Now 🖥️ — Footy on Nine (@FootyonNine) June 22, 2025
Telegraph
13-06-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Labour threatens to ban Serco over blunders
Labour has threatened to ban Serco from any new Government contracts after its blunders led to criminals going untagged for months. Lord Timpson, the prisons minister, said the global contracting giant could be blocked from future public contracts if there was 'another episode of similar poor performance'. It follows an undercover investigation by Channel 4 Dispatches, which found that criminals including a murderer had gone untagged for months under the £51 million-a-year contract Serco had with the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). An undercover reporter hired to fit and monitor electronic ankle tags on newly released prisoners was repeatedly sent to the wrong addresses for criminals including a murderer and paedophile. The reporter also discovered that a murderer had gone without a tag for at least two months after claiming that his legs were too swollen for an ankle monitor. Another criminal was accused of taking off her tag to go on holiday and boasting about it to almost 200,000 TikTok followers. Another was overheard claiming that he had ripped his tag off and could do what he wanted. 'Serco could be excluded from bidding' At present, a total of 20,000 people are tagged, and the technology – which allows a freed offender to be tracked via GPS – is central to the Government's plans to expand the use of community punishments as an alternative to jail. The plans could see the number of people tagged more than double as thousands more prisoners are released early from jail. Up to 40,000 criminals convicted of lower-level crimes could also be spared prison in favour of community orders. In a letter to the Commons justice committee, Lord Timpson said new legislation – which came into force in February – would enable ministers to bar companies from being awarded contracts or securing procurements for up to five years. It also enabled public authorities to exclude contractors from bidding for contracts if they were judged to be unreliable in delivering work or where public confidence could be undermined by the 'honesty, integrity and probity' of suppliers. Lord Timpson said: 'In the event of another episode of similar poor performance [as defined in the Act] by Serco after the Act came into force, or a new occurrence of poor performance by Serco after the Act came into force, then Serco could be excluded from bidding or being awarded a future public contract through either the debarment or exclusion regimes.' In a statement to Channel 4, Antony King, the managing director of Citizen Services at Serco, said: 'We are proud of the challenging work our people do, working with multiple partners across the criminal justice system in delivering an essential and critical public safety service, often with complex and ever-increasing requirements. 'Our performance continues to improve, which the MoJ recognise, and we continue to monitor record numbers of people in the community supporting our colleagues in probation and the Home Office.'
Daily Mail
28-05-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
Electronic tags do NOT prevent criminals from re-offending, warns Met chief... as Labour lets thousands skip jail
Tagging criminals instead of sending them to prison will not stop re-offending, the head of the country's biggest police force has warned. Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, issued a stark warning yesterday about the Government's plans to let tens of thousands of offenders avoid jail. He said that fewer criminals serving prison time would 'generate a lot of work for police' and a 'proportion' of them would go on to commit another crime. Sir Mark also accused ministers of having done 'no analysis whatsoever' on the impact of letting criminals dodge jail sentences or be released early. Under Labour's overhaul of sentencing laws announced last week, some criminals – including violent and sexual offenders – will be released early for good behaviour. And courts will no longer impose jail terms of less than 12 months, apart from in 'exceptional circumstances', with more criminals serving sentences in the community instead. Alongside the changes, the Probation Service was given a funding boost to buy nearly 30,000 more electronic tags – enabling it to quadruple the number of criminals being monitored with the devices. But the Met Commissioner told BBC Radio 4's Today programme tagging criminals cannot be relied upon: 'Every time you put an offender into the community, a proportion of them will commit crime, a proportion of them will need chasing down by the police.' He went on: 'If probation are going to spend more money on trying to reform offenders, divert them, reduce their recidivism, that's fantastic. 'But a proportion of those who would've been in prison will be committing further offences because probation can't do a perfect job, it's impossible. 'That extra offending is work that police have to do to protect communities. That involves more arrests, more cases. So this will generate a lot of work for police.' Sir Mark's comments came after he and five other senior police officers – chief constables Serena Kennedy, Stephen Watson, Craig Guildford and John Robins, as well as chairman of the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC)Gavin Stephens – wrote a letter in The Times calling on the Government to provide 'serious investment' at this month's spending review. As well as increasing demand and new online threats from organised crime, they said the emergency release of prisoners to alleviate overcrowding and recommendations in the sentencing review would put more pressure on policing. The officers warned that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's flagship pledges on knife crime, violence against women and recruiting thousands more police officers would be unachievable without spending more. Their warning comes ahead of the Chancellor's spending review on June 11, which chiefs said was 'the most important moment in decades' for the backing of police by the Government. Police chiefs have also called for a radical overhaul of the structure of UK policing with fewer, larger forces amid financial shortages and difficulties dealing with updating technology. The current structure of 43 geographical forces was established in the 1960s and there have long been concerns that the model is not fit for purpose. As the NPCC published the police data strategy for 2025 to 2030 today, force bosses called for a redesign of the structure of policing in England and Wales. Mr Stephens said 'the system is not resilient' and argued for 'bigger, capable forces led by a stronger national centre'.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Outdoors Notebook: Game and Fish launches 3-year walleye-tagging study on Devils Lake
May 24—DEVILS LAKE — The North Dakota Game and Fish Department has launched a three-year walleye-tagging study on Devils Lake in an effort to learn more about the "exploitation rate," or percentage of walleyes anglers harvest each year, on the popular fishery. In a "North Dakota Outdoors" video segment, Todd Caspers, district fisheries biologist for Game and Fish in Devils Lake, said the goal is to tag at least 1,000 walleyes each of the three years in various locations across the lake. Running the study for three years instead of just one will help account for year-to-year differences in fishing success, Caspers said in the video. "One year, the fishing might be really good and exploitation might be a little higher, and then vice versa, if it's a slower year for walleye fishing, exploitation will probably be lower," Caspers said. "So, (over) three years, we'll see that kind of average out to a more average picture of what our exploitation is." Fisheries crews will tag walleyes of various sizes — basically from 13 inches up to 30 inches — throughout the study, Caspers said, using metal tags that are fastened through the fishes' thin mouth tissue. Anglers who catch a tagged walleye can either keep or release the fish like they would any walleye, but should report the tag number, either through their personal online Game and Fish account, on the Game and Fish website or by calling the Devils Lake district office at (701) 662-3617. The Devils Lake walleye-tagging study is one of seven department fisheries crews are conducting across the state this year. Game and Fish last conducted a walleye-tagging study on Devils Lake from 2007 through 2009. BISMARCK — The North Dakota Game and Fish Department encourages public comment on the revision of its 2015 State Wildlife Action Plan. Known as SWAP, for short, the plan is North Dakota's guiding document for the conservation and restoration of at-risk species and their habitats, with a focus on preventing species from becoming endangered. It identifies species of greatest conservation need, including fish, wildlife and invertebrates. In a news release, Game and Fish said the plan is revised every 10 years and represents a unified effort involving various stakeholders aimed at creating and implementing conservation strategies to ensure the long-term protection and sustainability of the state's fish and wildlife. North Dakota's SWAP is a collaborative effort by Game and Fish staff, species experts, partner conservation groups, and state, federal and local agencies. A draft of the plan is available on the department's website — — and public comments will be accepted through June 30. ST. PAUL — Minnesota's bass fishing catch-and-keep season opens Saturday, May 24. According to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, spring is a great time to cast a line for these fun-to-catch fish. Largemouth and smallmouth bass can be easier to catch in spring and early summer when they spend more time in shallow water. Later, as water temperatures rise, many bass move to deeper water in search of sunken points, rocky humps and aquatic plant edges that offer protection from larger fish and hiding places for prey. Learn more about how to fish for bass and other species on the DNR's learn to fish webpage at .
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
More offenders could be tagged, as minister insists he's 'not soft on crime'
Prisons minister James Timpson has told the BBC more criminals could be tagged in future instead of being sent to prison - but insists he's not "soft on crime". More than 30 companies, including Microsoft and Google, will meet the government today to explore how technology could help monitor offenders in the community more effectively and tackle violence in prison. Lord Timpson says tagging more people instead of sending them to prison is a potential alternative punishment. But critics have questioned his previous comments about the UK being "addicted" to sentencing and punishment, and how "only a third" of inmates should be in prison. "I don't think I'm soft on crime at all," Lord Timpson says in the wide-ranging BBC interview. "I think I'm pretty tough in my style. In business, I'm tough but I use the evidence - and in this job I'm using the evidence." He says he is passionate about rehabilitating offenders in prison so they don't commit further crimes when released. However, more than 26% of adult criminals in England and Wales go on to reoffend within a year of being let out of prison. "How do we reduce re-offending? How do we deal with people's drug addiction, mental health problems, the fact that people leave prison they don't know where to live, people don't have a job? That is also a really important part of my job," he says. The former CEO of the Timpson Group, which provides key cutting and shoe repair services, is known for hiring ex-offenders and is a former chairman of the Prison Reform Trust. Lord Timpson took up his role at the Ministry of Justice in July last year, when the penal system in England and Wales was close to breaking point. Prisons were full, and months later thousands of inmates were released early as part of an emergency plan to ease overcrowding and free up space. He says prisons are still in a state of "crisis", with fewer than 1,000 spare places and more than 88,000 people in custody in England and Wales. "We recently opened HMP Millsike," he says, describing the new category C prison which opened in East Yorkshire in March, with capacity for up to 1,500 inmates. "We've got more cells opening across the country. We need to keep building prison places because the population is going up." Last month, three prison officers were seriously injured at HMP Frankland, in Durham, after they were attacked with makeshift weapons and hot oil by one of the men responsible for the Manchester Arena bombing. Hashem Abedi was being held in a separation centre - used to house a small number of the most dangerous and extremist inmates - at the category A, maximum security jail. "What happened in Frankland is absolutely shocking," Lord Timpson says. "The level of violence in prisons is far too high - and it is increasing. "Our prison staff did an incredible job. I don't want them to turn up to work thinking that there's going to be violence. I want them to turn up to work helping people turn their lives around." However, the number of assaults on staff in prison is the highest in a decade, with 10,605 recorded in 2024. More prisons reporting by Sima Kotecha Lord Timpson refutes claims that gangs are in charge of some of Britain's biggest jails, but acknowledges that serious organised crime is the one thing that "keeps me awake at night". "Serious organised crime brings drugs in and creates violence and intimidation in prisons," he says. "This has been a long-term problem in prisons, but it is even more of a problem when the capacity is as full as it is. "If we had people who went to prison who didn't get drugs and weren't intimidated by serious organised criminals, they'd be far more likely to engage with a sentence and get well enough so that when they leave they don't commit further crime." The government has commissioned an independent sentencing review to explore alternatives to prison in an attempt to ease overcrowding. The review will provide long-term solutions for the justice system and examine the use and composition of non-custodial sentences, including community alternatives to prison and the use of fines. Increased tagging will also be considered. There are three types of ankle tags currently used to monitor offenders: alcohol, GPS, and curfew tags. A new study suggests tags that monitor curfews cut reoffending by 20%. "We want them to have a one-way ticket - not a return back into prison or back into non-custodial sentences," Lord Timpson says. "What's really important is we embrace technology and look at the evidence - tagging can have some very important benefits." But the use of electronic tagging to monitor offenders has been problematic. In recent months several probation staff have told the BBC offenders who should be tagged, have not been. The security company Serco has been contracted by the government to manage tagging since October 2023. "We inherited a contract with Serco and it's been far from perfect," Lord Timpson says. "We're putting a lot of pressure still on them to perform, but we need to work together to make sure that people are tagged on time in the right way. Things are getting better, but we're not there yet." Anthony Kirby, Serco Group CEO, told the BBC he is pleased the prisons minister has recognised the progress Serco has made since taking over the electronic monitoring service: "We are proud of the role we have supporting the Criminal Justice System, monitoring record numbers of people in the community and protecting public safety in partnership with HMPPS." [BBC] Sign up for our Politics Essential newsletter to keep up with the inner workings of Westminster and beyond.
