❓ Mr. Papalia questions the Minister for Police regarding a reported four-hour delay in police response to an attempted child abduction in Warnbro. The Minister acknowledges the mishandling of the incident and outlines steps being taken to improve police processes.
AnsweredQoN 324Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
ATTEMPTED ABDUCTION — POLICE RESPONSE
324. Mr P. PAPALIA to the Minister for Police:
I refer to an article in The
West Australian of 28 April that reported that a father and his neighbours
in Warnbro foiled an attempt to abduct his little girl.
(1) Can the
minister confirm that the father had to wait four hours before the police
responded to his request for assistance?
(2) Is a
four-hour wait for a response to a report of a child abduction normal practice
under the minister's government?
324. Mr P. PAPALIA to the Minister for Police:
I refer to an article in The
West Australian of 28 April that reported that a father and his neighbours
in Warnbro foiled an attempt to abduct his little girl.
(1) Can the
minister confirm that the father had to wait four hours before the police
responded to his request for assistance?
(2) Is a
four-hour wait for a response to a report of a child abduction normal practice
under the minister's government?
AnswerView source ↗
(1)–(2)
I thank the member for Warnbro for this question. I have received a briefing
from WA Police about this matter. It has not been handled appropriately and
police are certainly working on improving their processes in response to these
sorts of circumstances. What actually happened in that instance was an
attempted abduction of, I think, an eight-year-old girl. The abduction was
foiled and police were called for assistance. My understanding is that the
person who attempted to abduct the child was in the vicinity in a distressed
state and being managed by people. The incident was incorrectly downgraded from
a priority 3 to another category at the police assistance centre so it did not
receive the right prioritisation. As a result, there was a considerable delay
in police attending the scene. We are looking into that incident, which was
serious. Police have contacted the people involved and apologised. Police are
also interrogating the entire process to ensure that this does not occur again.
I thank the member for Warnbro for this question. I have received a briefing
from WA Police about this matter. It has not been handled appropriately and
police are certainly working on improving their processes in response to these
sorts of circumstances. What actually happened in that instance was an
attempted abduction of, I think, an eight-year-old girl. The abduction was
foiled and police were called for assistance. My understanding is that the
person who attempted to abduct the child was in the vicinity in a distressed
state and being managed by people. The incident was incorrectly downgraded from
a priority 3 to another category at the police assistance centre so it did not
receive the right prioritisation. As a result, there was a considerable delay
in police attending the scene. We are looking into that incident, which was
serious. Police have contacted the people involved and apologised. Police are
also interrogating the entire process to ensure that this does not occur again.
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