Patients at the East Coast Forensic Hospital in Halifax will not be required to wear GPS ankle bracelets when on leave from the facility.

Nova Scotia health minister Leo Glavine announced the decision on Thursday, after his department reviewed reports from the U.K. and the Netherlands, as well as potential legal issues.

“We saw that with the Charter challenge, the Human Rights Act, and the Criminal Code, we would have huge obstacles to even put a pilot in place,” Glavine said.

Glavine said he considered the decision as a personal request, which came from the family of Raymond Taavel and their lawyer.

Taavel died  in Halifax in 2012.

The man charged in his death was on a one-hour pass from the forensic hospital at the time.

The second-degree murder trial of Andre Noel Denny is scheduled to begin in October.

“There was really no evidence or certainly no directional indication that in fact it would reduce violence, stop violence,” Glavine said.

Taavel’s family expressed disappointment with the decision following the announcement.

In a statement, the family said the government’s decision shows they “have failed to do their part to prevent another tragedy … The lives and well-being of Nova Scotians continue to be at risk.”

Not so, says Glavine.

“It would not prevent the incident that happened to Raymond Taavel and other incidents of violent behavior,” Glavine said.

There have been changes at the forensic hospital since Taavel’s death.

An external review handed down 18 recommendations following the incident — and Dr. Aileen Brunet, the facility’s clinical director, says they’ve helped address some of the issues they’ve had.

Meanwhile, Dr. Brunet said she supports the government’s decision on GPS tracking.

“Considering the resources that would be involved and the barriers and potential negative consequences arising from it, balanced against the difficulty in demonstrating that it would, in fact, be effective, we think it’s a good decision,” she said.

Dr. Brunet said, historically, there’s a low rate of violence among the patient population when they do leave without permission or don’t return as scheduled.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Jacqueline Foster