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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 458 asked in the Legislative Assembly on 19 August 2021 by Dr D.J. Honey

Parliament: 41 Session: 1

POLICE — CRIME STATISTICS

458. Dr D.J. HONEY to the Minister for Police:

I refer to the most recent Western Australian crime statistics published on the Western Australia Police Force website.

(1) Can the minister confirm that violent crime—namely, crimes against the person—is now the worst in Western Australia's history?

(2) Can the minister outline to the house how police response times have been impacted over the last 12 months?

Mr P. PAPALIA replied:

(1)–(2) I thank the member for the question. What I can say with respect to crime statistics, member, is that Western Australia confronts, like everywhere in the world post-COVID, a significant uplift in family and domestic violence incidents. That has just been a sad phenomenon encountered right around the world, and that certainly feeds into statistics relating to crimes against the person. It is a significant challenge. It is something that we are confronting. We are employing more resources and putting more focused attention on this particular task than at any time in the history of this state. The Minister for Community Services was with me and the Commissioner of Police at the State Operations Command Centre only yesterday, getting briefed by police and Communities personnel, including the director general of Communities and other staff, about some initiatives that we can take to focus very much on this particular challenge and seek out the benefits of some of the technological advances that have been made in recent times. The establishment of the State Operations Command Centre under this government will enable us to provide better services to confront that challenge.

We all know, too, that right now we are in the midst of the biggest expansion of the Western Australia Police Force in a four-year period in the history of the state. There will be 950 police officers, above and beyond attrition, added to the force. That is something like a 15 per cent increase in the force. That is above and beyond attrition, so we will also be recruiting beyond that, so it will end up being around 1 200 police officers over our first term and this coming term. The challenges we face are associated with a growing population and around crime rates returning to where they were before the COVID pandemic. As a consequence of COVID, there was a massive drop-off in crime, which was experienced due to the border closures and the interruption of the methamphetamine flow into the state. But the challenges, once crime rates come back to pre-COVID levels, will be met with more resources, more capability and more focus than at any time in the state's history. That is true.