COMMUNITY PROTECTION
(OFFENDER REPORTING) ACT —REGISTERED SEX OFFENDER COMPLIANCE
412. Hon CHARLES SMITH to the minister representing the
Minister for Police:
I refer to the Community Protection
(Offender Reporting) Act 2004.
(1) How many
people are currently registered as sex offenders in WA?
(2) How many
registered sex offenders as of today are wanted for either —
(a) failure to
comply with their reporting obligations;
(b) providing
false or misleading information to police;
(c) location or
whereabouts is not known to police; or
(d) breaching the
terms of their release orders?
(3) How many
inquiries have been submitted to the Community Protection Western Australia
access registered sex offender information website in the last 12 months?
Hon STEPHEN DAWSON
replied:
I thank the honourable member for
some notice of the question. The following information has been provided by the
Minister for Police:
(1)–(3) The Western Australia Police Force advises that
currently 3 491 reportable offenders are registered in Western Australia in
accordance with the Community Protection (Offender Reporting) Act 2004. Of
these, the number of registered reportable offenders who have either failed to
comply with their reporting obligations or provided false or misleading information
and their current whereabouts are unknown to police is 19. The Western Australia
Police Force routinely posts the details of those sex offenders who do not
comply with their conditions and deems their whereabouts as unknown. The number
of missing offenders on the Community Protection offender website varies from
time to time. It has been greater than 25 in the past two years. The reasons
for that also vary and can include the timing of police visits, proactive
police operations aimed at verifying personal information provided by
offenders, and movements of offenders in remote and regional areas. Police have
a dedicated team of officers who continually make efforts to locate and charge
offenders who have been listed as missing or who breach their reporting
obligations. In addition, there have been 6 091 inquiries submitted to the
Community Protection Western Australia access registered sex offender
information website in the last 12 months.