Question On Notice No. 484 asked in the Legislative Council on 15 February 2022 by Hon Wilson Tucker
Question Directed to the: Minister for Emergency Services representing the Minister for Police
Parliament: 41 Session: 1
Question
(1) Does the Western Australia Police Force record incidents that relate to dog theft?
(2) Do these records differentiate between the theft of a dog from an owner and an owner/breeder?
(3) If yes to (1), will the Minister please provide the total recorded incidents for each month from November 2019 to November 2021?
(4) If yes to (2), will the Minister please arrange the total recorded incidents in such a way to differentiate between owners and owner/breeders?
Answered on 15 March 2022
The Western Australian Police Force advise:
1. Yes
2. No. The differentiation between dog theft from an owner and an owner/breeder cannot be completed in a systematic and reliable manner.
3. Eight incidents in November 2019; seven incidents in December 2019; six incidents in January 2020; 11 incidents in February 2020; 16 incidents in March 2020; four incidents in April 2020; 11 incidents in May 2020; 12 incidents in June 2020; 13 incidents in July 2020; six incidents in August 2020; four incidents in September 2020; six incidents in October 2020; 10 incidents in November 2020; nine incidents in December 2020; 14 incidents in January 2021; eight incidents in February 2021; four incidents in March 2021; 13 incidents in April 2021; 13 incidents in May 2021; nine incidents in June 2021; eight incidents in July 2021; nine incidents in August 2021; seven incidents in September 2021; eight incidents in October 2021; and six incidents in November 2021.
4. Not applicable
Notes
1. Figures are provisional and subject to revision.
2. Figures are of incidents reported to or becoming known to police between 1 November 2019 and 30 November 2021 that have at least one substantiated stealing or burglary offence. A substantiated offence is an offence which has not received an outcome of: ‘No Criminal Offence’, ‘Offence Substituted’, ‘False Report’, ‘Mistakenly Reported’, or ‘Entered in Error’.
3. Incidents were included in the response where a stolen dog or dogs was recorded against the incident. Stolen dogs were identified where a property item was recorded against the incident with a class of ‘stolen’; property type of ‘pets / livestock’; property item of ‘animal’, ‘domestic pet’, ‘livestock’, or ‘other’; and content within the free text fields of that item indicating the stolen item was a dog.
4. Figures are subject to the completeness and correctness of recorded details, and to the subjective assessments of officers recording relevant details.
5. Figures include instances in which the reported incident involves a dog being taken by unknown persons, and instances in which the reported incident involves a dog being taken by a person known to the victim (e.g. family, ex-partner, neighbour).
Source
Data was extracted from the Incident Management System (IMS) on 18 February 2022.