Corrections officials say they contact the police when offenders cut off their electronic monitoring devices — but CBC News has learned the Regina force doesn't follow up on the calls.

The devices, sometimes called ankle bracelets, are used to supervise people who have been sentenced to serve conditional sentences in their homes.

Sometimes an offender will cut through the electronic device and take off from his home. When that happens, an alarm goes off and a correctional worker gets the word.

"We will notify police, immediately," said Carol Fiedelleck, Saskatchewan's director of community corrections.

However, according to documents obtained by the CBC, when the correctional workers call the Regina police and ask officers to go check, they don't do it.

On April 29, 2006, for example, when an alarm went off, the corrections worker was told by a Regina police dispatcher that "a police member would not be attending [the offender's] residence because they do not do E.M. checks."

Regina police spokeswoman Elizabeth Popowich said it's not the police's responsibility to investigate the alarms.

Even if police had the resources, they wouldn't do it, she said.

"It's not our responsibility to check the house," she said.

Provincial officials say that at any given time there are about 290 people who have been ordered to wear ankle bracelets.

Out of that number, around five will have cut off their bracelets.

Electronic monitoring is typically used as part of conditional sentences as an alternative to imprisonment. In some cases, those who cut off their bracelets in violation of their sentence will be resentenced and go to jail.