Corrective Services has begun electronic monitoring of family and domestic violence offenders.
The two-year trial involves GPS tracking of up to 100 high-risk offenders who have breached a family violence restraining order and committed a further act of family violence.
A total of $10 million has been allocated to the Department of Justice and
$5.5 million to the WA Police Force to run the trial.
To support the trial, the funding provides for an additional 15 Adult Community Corrections staff and makes available two police officers.
A total of 100 new GPS monitoring devices have been provided and offenders subject to tracking will receive increased rehabilitation treatment.
Minister for Prevention of Family and Domestic Violence, Simone McGurk said offenders wear the electronic device attached to an ankle bracelet, which sets off an alert if they enter an exclusion zone, for example, near the victim’s suburb — or if there is an attempt to tamper with the device.
“In these instances, Adult Community Corrections officers would make a swift and appropriate response in consultation with dedicated police officers, including police attendance in certain high-risk situations,” Ms McGurk said.
“The Commissioner for Victims of Crime will provide ongoing support to the victims of these offenders during the trial.”
She said police statistics showed there were 24,498 family-related assault and threatening behaviour offences in 2019-20.
“In that same period, there were 12,014 family violence restraining orders lodged and 4,594 charges laid for breaches of family violence restraining orders,” the Minister said.
“This trial is aimed at increasing the safety of victims and the community, and will work in unison with other measures we have put in place to address Western Australia’s high rates of family and domestic violence.”
