Home›Questions on Notice›QoN 1705

❓ WA Police provides data on the Regional Enforcement Unit's (REU) performance, including Category A contacts, RBTs, and RDTs, but cannot provide a breakdown of enforcement activity locations due to data limitations. The REU's effectiveness is measured by its contribution to overall WA Police Force targets and visible presence on regional roads.

AnsweredQoN 1705Legislative Council

Asked

17 October 2018

Member

Hon Martin Aldridge

Portfolio

Police; Road Safety

QuestionView source ↗

I refer to the Regional Enforcement Unit of the Western Australia Police, and I ask: (a) what measures are used to determine the effectiveness of the unit; (b) what data is collected by the unit to assess performance or tasks performed i.e. traffic interceptions, infringements issued, incidents attended etc.; (c) will the Minister please provide data identified in (b), per month, since establishment of the unit; (d) what data is collected by the unit to record the operating location of the unit i.e. patrol routes or local government presence; and (e) will the Minster please provide data identified in (d), per month, since establishment of the unit that would establish the regional penetration of the unit?

AnswerView source ↗

Answered

29 November 2018

Responded by

Minister for Environment representing the Minister for Police; Road Safety

Response time

13 days

(a)-(e) The Western Australian Police Force advise that the Regional Enforcement Unit (REU) patrol locations include those arterial and secondary road networks based on fatal and critical injury crash data within the South-West, Mid-West Gascoyne, Great Southern and Wheatbelt Regions. The two measures are used to determine the effectiveness of the Regional Enforcement Unit (REU) are the contribution towards the Western Australia Police Force Random Breath Testing target of 1 725 000 for the 2018/19 financial year, the contribution towards the WA Police Force Roadside Oral Fluid Testing target of 40000 tests for the 2018/19 financial year. However, given the large distances and relatively sparse roads (compared to the metropolitan area) covered by the REU, an important outcome is the unit’s contribution to a visible police presence on regional roads. Further, the units contributes towards the number of Category A contacts made by police, including:
The output per month since the establishment of the unit is as follows:
Jan 18
Feb 18
Mar
Apr 18
May 18
Jun 18
Jul 18
Aug 18
Sep 18
Oct 18
CAT A
265
421
551
645
707
602
722
980
872
756
RBT
2184
4910
3331
1254
1031
2021
1471
3041
2611
3221
RDT
0
0
0
0
0
0
282
318
179
219
Please note the data in this table is indicative of REU enforcement effort. Business Intelligence Analytics are unable to discern REU enforcement outputs from the whole contribution of State Traffic. Roadside Drug Test numbers recorded for current Financial Year only as REU was created after the 2017/18 Financial Year allocation. The WA Police Force is unable to provide a breakdown of the locations within which each type of enforcement activity is carried out. However, the attached roster is an example of REU patrol deployments across all patrol regions over one fortnight. [See Tabled Paper]

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