Public Safety committee  That's absolutely correct. We're very much at the beginning stages.

Public Safety committee  We do have a rough understanding of some of the technologies that are available, and they do, I think I've already mentioned, fall into the GPS-enabled devices or base station systems that use RF—radio frequency—monitoring. People don't talk a lot about biometric systems, but you can use biometric systems in certain circumstances, depending upon, again, the operational requirement.

Public Safety committee  The GPS systems use an embedded GPS capability that the person wears, and that GPS capability produces a system log of where that person has been based on a connection with the GPS satellite system. That information is either downloaded in real time using something like cellphone technology through a monitoring site, or it could be downloaded at the end of the day to show where the person had been during the day.

Public Safety committee  I can't really answer that question. To be honest with you, we haven't done the survey. The deployment of these devices and their use on a daily basis is not part of our responsibilities. I think Corrections Canada is probably the best route to answer that question. I would be surprised if biometrics was being used.

Public Safety committee  Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, members of the committee. My name, as you heard already, is Anthony Ashley. I am the director general of the Defence Research and Development Canada Centre for Security Science, and I have been in that position since the centre was established in 2006.