❓ Question regarding the increase in domestic assault offences reported in WA during 2014-15 and the measures WA Police are implementing to address the issue. The Minister acknowledges the increase and outlines several initiatives.
AnsweredQoN 897Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
POLICE —
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
897. Mrs G.J. GODFREY to the
Minister for Police:
During 2014–15,
there were 16 461 domestic assault offences reported in Western Australia. Can
the minister advise what measures WA Police are implementing to address this
issue?
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
897. Mrs G.J. GODFREY to the
Minister for Police:
During 2014–15,
there were 16 461 domestic assault offences reported in Western Australia. Can
the minister advise what measures WA Police are implementing to address this
issue?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member
for Belmont for raising this very important issue in her question in respect to
domestic violence. Western Australia Police and the government view domestic
violence as a very serious issue and a high priority within the agency's
work. This is reflected in the fact that WA Police has amongst its top six key
effectiveness indicators KPI 6 for measuring our success and effectiveness in
the family and domestic violence space. We measure the percentage of family and
domestic violence incidents in which the offender has been processed for
offences against a person within seven days. Our target for 2014–15 was
75 per cent. We did not achieve that. We actually achieved 71.6 per cent.
Although we have not achieved our target, it is a significant improvement on
the 2012–13 financial year.
The member for
Belmont is quite right that there was an increase in the incidence of family
and domestic violence against the person of 16.8 per cent in 2014–15.
For members' interest, that is 2 839 additional incidents. We had 19 728
offences in 2014–15, which was up from 16 889 in 2012–13. We
have much room for improvement. The Commissioner of Police, the executive team
and I are very committed to ensuring that we improve our response and
effectiveness in respect to family and domestic violence.
In that vein, I
welcome the Community Development and Justice Standing Committee's
report, '' A measure of
trust: How WA Police evaluates the
effectiveness of its response to family and domestic violence'' . I have had a look through the report. I
appreciate the work of the committee in compiling that report and conducting
that inquiry. We will be interrogating that report and I will ensure that we
have a response available to the Parliament in due course.
We have initiated a
number of new initiatives around the family and domestic violence space. One of
them is around the perpetrator engagement program, whereby we work with
offenders who are in custody on their violence and anger management issues to
try to proactively refer them to programs to correct their offending behaviour.
We have incorporated into Constable Care programs awareness around family and
domestic violence issues that is consistent with our protective behaviours
approach to inform our young people about when they might find themselves in a
family and domestic violence scenario. We also have our family and domestic
violence response teams. They are a collaborative arrangement between multiple
agencies to ensure that we can jointly assess families and victims of domestic violence;
we can triage offences and our response to it; and we can coordinate an
across-agency support program around those victims and improve the safety of
women and children, who are predominantly the victims of domestic violence.
We have also
initiated our red files program. Red files are where we flag people who present
an extreme risk. Police collaborate with other agencies and ensure that we know
the risks and that we have a multi-agency approach to managing those people
whom we have identified through our red files as being at extreme risk of
offending. In addition to that, we have introduced our mobile phone duress
system. It is a 1800 number. We issue mobile phones to victims who may not have
access to a mobile phone or the access they have might be restricted. That is
to ensure that they can call that 1800 number if they are in distress and that
will spark a priority response from police. That is also coordinated with a
safety plan and strategy around those victims to ensure that if they find themselves
in a crisis scenario, we can get there quickly and they can get out of that
scenario effectively and we can keep that person intact.
We will continue to
work on family and domestic violence. We want to drive the rates down. Police
have been engaged in a very proactive approach over the last several years to
try to drive down the incidence of family and domestic violence, improve our response
and, indeed, improve the way that we report on our effectiveness in the family
and domestic violence sphere in Western Australia.
for Belmont for raising this very important issue in her question in respect to
domestic violence. Western Australia Police and the government view domestic
violence as a very serious issue and a high priority within the agency's
work. This is reflected in the fact that WA Police has amongst its top six key
effectiveness indicators KPI 6 for measuring our success and effectiveness in
the family and domestic violence space. We measure the percentage of family and
domestic violence incidents in which the offender has been processed for
offences against a person within seven days. Our target for 2014–15 was
75 per cent. We did not achieve that. We actually achieved 71.6 per cent.
Although we have not achieved our target, it is a significant improvement on
the 2012–13 financial year.
The member for
Belmont is quite right that there was an increase in the incidence of family
and domestic violence against the person of 16.8 per cent in 2014–15.
For members' interest, that is 2 839 additional incidents. We had 19 728
offences in 2014–15, which was up from 16 889 in 2012–13. We
have much room for improvement. The Commissioner of Police, the executive team
and I are very committed to ensuring that we improve our response and
effectiveness in respect to family and domestic violence.
In that vein, I
welcome the Community Development and Justice Standing Committee's
report, '' A measure of
trust: How WA Police evaluates the
effectiveness of its response to family and domestic violence'' . I have had a look through the report. I
appreciate the work of the committee in compiling that report and conducting
that inquiry. We will be interrogating that report and I will ensure that we
have a response available to the Parliament in due course.
We have initiated a
number of new initiatives around the family and domestic violence space. One of
them is around the perpetrator engagement program, whereby we work with
offenders who are in custody on their violence and anger management issues to
try to proactively refer them to programs to correct their offending behaviour.
We have incorporated into Constable Care programs awareness around family and
domestic violence issues that is consistent with our protective behaviours
approach to inform our young people about when they might find themselves in a
family and domestic violence scenario. We also have our family and domestic
violence response teams. They are a collaborative arrangement between multiple
agencies to ensure that we can jointly assess families and victims of domestic violence;
we can triage offences and our response to it; and we can coordinate an
across-agency support program around those victims and improve the safety of
women and children, who are predominantly the victims of domestic violence.
We have also
initiated our red files program. Red files are where we flag people who present
an extreme risk. Police collaborate with other agencies and ensure that we know
the risks and that we have a multi-agency approach to managing those people
whom we have identified through our red files as being at extreme risk of
offending. In addition to that, we have introduced our mobile phone duress
system. It is a 1800 number. We issue mobile phones to victims who may not have
access to a mobile phone or the access they have might be restricted. That is
to ensure that they can call that 1800 number if they are in distress and that
will spark a priority response from police. That is also coordinated with a
safety plan and strategy around those victims to ensure that if they find themselves
in a crisis scenario, we can get there quickly and they can get out of that
scenario effectively and we can keep that person intact.
We will continue to
work on family and domestic violence. We want to drive the rates down. Police
have been engaged in a very proactive approach over the last several years to
try to drive down the incidence of family and domestic violence, improve our response
and, indeed, improve the way that we report on our effectiveness in the family
and domestic violence sphere in Western Australia.
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