❓ Hon Michelle Boylan's question on notice addresses WA Police handling of stalking, requesting data on staffing, reported offences, FDV links, sanction rates, time to charge, technology-facilitated stalking, reclassifications, and breaches of FVROs. The response provides some data but cites limitations in data collection and resource constraints.
AnsweredQoN 728Legislative Council
QuestionView source ↗
(1) I refer to Western Australian (WA) Police handling of matters relating to stalking, and I ask: (a) are there any stalking units or designated officers in WA Police; and (b) if so, please table locations and number of staff designated? (2) I refer to statistics recorded for stalking in Western Australia for the last five years, and I ask: (a) can the Minister please table the number of reported stalking offences; and (b) of those in (a), I ask for: (i) number of those flagged as FDV rated; (ii) sanction rates; (iii) median time from first report of stalking to charge; (iv) number of matters involving technology-facilitated stalking or coercive control; and (v) how many incidents were recorded as stalking but reclassified to another offence? (3) Of stalking offences recorded in the last five financial years how many of those matters were recorded as breaches of family and domestic violence restraining orders?
AnswerView source ↗
Answered
18 November 2025
Responded by
Minister for the Environment representing the Minister for Police
Response time
7 days
(1) (a-b) Stalking investigations are conducted by Local Detectives, local police and Family Violence Teams in the Metropolitan Region and Regional WA portfolios.
(2) (a) There were 2,233 stalking offences reported to police in the last five financial years (2020-21 to 2024-25).
(b)
(i) 1,649 were flagged as Family Domestic Violence (FDV) in police systems.
(ii)
2020-21
2021-22
2022-23
2023-24
2024-25
Sanction Rates
63.5%
62.8%
57.4%
61.9%
56.1%
(iii) The median time between reporting of an offence and charges being laid cannot be determined as reported offences and charges are recorded in separate applications. As a proxy, the median time between reporting of an offence, and the offence having a result of ‘offender processed,’ is provided.
2020-21
2021-22
2022-23
2023-24
2024-25
Median number of days
5.4
7.2
13.7
3.8
2.5
(iv) The Western Australia Police Force cannot provide an answer in relation to technology-facilitated stalking offences. Providing such an answer would require extensive manual review, and as such would require an unrealistic number of resources and time.
(v) The WA Police Force records when an offence is substituted for another offence in the Incident Management System (IMS). Such offences will have an offence result of ‘offence substituted’ and are not included in reported statistics given in part
3. Stalking offences and breach of family violence restraining order offences are two separate offence categories. A stalking offence cannot be recorded as a breach family violence restraining order offence and vice versa. The number of stalking offences reported in part 2(a), where one or more breach of family violence restraining order offence(s) were reported on the same incident report as the stalking offence can be provided, which is 705.
(2) (a) There were 2,233 stalking offences reported to police in the last five financial years (2020-21 to 2024-25).
(b)
(i) 1,649 were flagged as Family Domestic Violence (FDV) in police systems.
(ii)
2020-21
2021-22
2022-23
2023-24
2024-25
Sanction Rates
63.5%
62.8%
57.4%
61.9%
56.1%
(iii) The median time between reporting of an offence and charges being laid cannot be determined as reported offences and charges are recorded in separate applications. As a proxy, the median time between reporting of an offence, and the offence having a result of ‘offender processed,’ is provided.
2020-21
2021-22
2022-23
2023-24
2024-25
Median number of days
5.4
7.2
13.7
3.8
2.5
(iv) The Western Australia Police Force cannot provide an answer in relation to technology-facilitated stalking offences. Providing such an answer would require extensive manual review, and as such would require an unrealistic number of resources and time.
(v) The WA Police Force records when an offence is substituted for another offence in the Incident Management System (IMS). Such offences will have an offence result of ‘offence substituted’ and are not included in reported statistics given in part
3. Stalking offences and breach of family violence restraining order offences are two separate offence categories. A stalking offence cannot be recorded as a breach family violence restraining order offence and vice versa. The number of stalking offences reported in part 2(a), where one or more breach of family violence restraining order offence(s) were reported on the same incident report as the stalking offence can be provided, which is 705.
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