Spike in abusers keeping women on a ‘GPS leash’

An alarming spike in abusers using stealthy GPS trackers to stalk their victims has prompted calls for tougher laws around the use of the spy gadgets.

There has been an alarming spike in the number of abusers using tracking devices to stalk their victims. Picture: Supplied

Tougher laws to prevent domestic abusers from monitoring victims with secret surveillance technology will form part of a new Justice Party push.

Private investigators and domestic abuse advocates say victims are being stalked and controlled through technology at alarming rates in Victoria.

Tracking devices are cheap and can be purchased by anyone, putting the lives of women and children at great risk of harm.

The Sunday Herald Sun can reveal a new campaign to strengthen laws relating to the nefarious use of tracking devices.

The Justice Party will lobby the state government to update its surveillance laws to better protect victims of domestic abuse.

Justice Party leader Stuart Grimley said: “Tracking devices have a place in helping people find their keys, wallet, phones or even their children, but where these are placed in a partner’s wallet, car, on their person or otherwise without their knowledge, we should be taking a tough stance.”

“Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party will be asking the Attorney-General next sitting week (mid November) to update Victoria’s legislation to cover offending where tracking devices are used to perpetrate control and family violence.”

Justice Party MP Tania Maxwell added: “Too many perpetrators of family violence use surveillance and tracking as a way to control, dictate and undermine their partners or family members.”

“Where this is without consent, it should simply not be legal. Despite this, it seems our laws haven’t been modernised to cope with new technologies and the wide access to tracking devices.”

A review into Victoria’s stalking laws and intervention order system is currently under way, with a particular focus on how legislation must adapt to advances in technology.

GPS trackers, secret cameras and listening devices are being used by perpetrators of domestic abuse at rates never before seen.

Crime Statistics Agency figures show there were 8151 family-related stalking, harassment and threatening behaviour offences per 100,000 population in the year to June – up from 7573 per 100,000 population the previous year.

Private investigator Paul Walshe of Asia Pacific Security Group said he had never had more work on surveillance-related family cases.

They related to the tracking of vehicles and the installation of cameras and listening devices in homes.

Mr Walshe said he could see no reason why the sale of vehicle tracking devices was not confined to licensed operators such as people who ran fleets.

He said it was deeply unnerving for women to find themselves being followed in such a fashion.

“She might be at a location and he’ll just turn up,” Mr Walshe said.

A recent study by WESNET, a peak national domestic violence body, revealed “most (abusers) usually … have women on a GPS leash”, and that there was a 245 per cent jump in victim-survivors being tracked by GPS apps and devices in 2020.

WESNET CEO Karen Bentley said technology doesn’t cause abuse and the focus needs to be on changing perpetrators’ behaviour.

“When there was the terror attack on Bourke St, no one talked about banning cars. We need to focus on the abusers,” she said.