NSW Police concerned dating apps being used by serial rapists
NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller believes dating apps and sites are being exploited by serial rapists with many sex attacks not reported because of privacy laws. He is now appointing an expert to investigate his suspicions.
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NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller believes dating apps and sites are being exploited by serial rapists with many sex attacks not reported because of privacy laws. He is now appointing an expert to investigate his suspicions.
“It’s my fear that there may be serial rapists using dating sites but I don’t have the data and can’t get it at the moment so I don't know if its true or false,” Mr Fuller told The Daily Telegraph.
Hospitals inform police of sexual assaults but it is up to victims to decide if they want to be interviewed by detectives.
Often they are too traumatised which means details about the attacks, including how they came into contact with the offender are not known.
“I totally understand and respect the privacy of victims if they don’t want to talk to us but my concern is we are missing opportunities to pick up trends in recidivism around adult sexual assaults like we do for robberies and just about all other crimes,” he said.
“And they could be raping men and women every Friday, Saturday night that we never know of.’’
A full-time position has been created and funding given for a project manager to work with NSW Health to find a way to collate information without breaching victims’ privacy.
Many victims will go to hospitals because they are physically and or psychologically in need of medical treatment but for various reasons will not want to divulge the details to police.
In a major change from normal police practice the Commissioner said his objective was not to get evidence for prosecution but get facts to see if there is a problem that needs to be addressed.
“It’s edgy stuff I admit, but we have to do that type of thinking if we are find out things that may be going on or are about to become a problem,” Mr Fuller said.
“We’ve all seen the grooming of young people that is occurring online. It would be stupid not to think there are adults in that same space looking for older victims.
“If we establish it's a problem then we can build strategies around that information, perhaps there is a way of unearthing online predators with adults the way we do with child grooming.”
The project will investigate if dating sites are having an impact on public safety for men and women. He said police are normally focused on prosecution but he said prevention is also a major priority for him.
“I want to see if there is a way I can get the information from the victim so I can better profile to see if there are recidivist offenders out there raping men and women, meeting either at hotels or dating sites.”
Police refer to these as “cold start”' engagements which Mr Fuller believes may be contributing to a rise in sex assaults. In the past five years the number of sexual assaults involving adults has risen six per cent, an indication that the recent growth in popular dating sites on social media and sites like Tinder could be a factor.
Over the past ten years the rate increased by 2.3 per cent. There were 1971 reported sex assaults on people over 18 in NSW for the 12 months to June this year.
Mr Fuller said that increase may be because of greater awareness and reporting but could not rule out an increase in “cold start”' meetings from the internet.
“The challenge is not to disrespect the victims’ right to have silence but see how do I get the information to help me better profile an offender to help the next victim from being raped. There have been many instances of alleged rape and attacks from people meeting online but no one has ever tried to get figures.”
Originally published as NSW Police concerned dating apps being used by serial rapists