WA prisons boss revoked support for GPS tracking in regional areas

The Commissioner of Corrective Services Brad Royce wrote to WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch, warning that his agency could no longer support GPS tracking of family and domestic violence offenders in regional WA because of “unacceptable risks” with response times if the trackers fault.

In the April 11 letter, obtained by the opposition, Royce said issues with GPS tracking in metro areas could be resolved promptly, but regional areas posed a risk to victims of the offenders.

GPS trackers.

“In regional and remote locations, delayed responses to these issues create an unacceptable risk, particularly critical in family and domestic violence cases, where immediate action can be necessary to prevent harm to victims,” he said.

“This is especially problematic at night or on weekends when [Adult Community Corrections] do not have the capacity to respond beyond the metropolitan area.

“In addition to responding to breach alerts, having the ability to address equipment failures, charging issues, or signal loss, are essential for effective monitoring.

“Accordingly, I am now providing formal advice that ACC will not recommend or support the use of electronic monitoring under the Family Violence Legislation Reform Act in any location other than the Perth metropolitan area.”

The act, which came into effect in December last year, mandates GPS tracking of repeat family violence offenders granted bail, but its effectiveness in regional areas has dogged the state government for several weeks.

Royce said the advice he provided to Blanch had also been provided to the Chief Magistrate, District Court Judge Wager, the Prisoner’s Review Board and the office of the Commissioner for Victims of Crime.

Royce’s letter damages the state government’s efforts to downplay the issue.

The opposition hammered the government with questions about the letter during question time on Thursday, querying whether Police Minister Reece Whitby was aware of the letter.

Whitby did not answer that question but said West Australians were safer than they were before the legislation came into effect.

Corrective Services Minister Paul Papalia said new advice had been provided subsequent to Royce’s letter.

That advice was not tabled in parliament despite requests from the opposition but was later given to media.

In the April 28 letter from Royce to Chief Magistrate Steven Heath he suggested judges consider other conditions when granting bail and that his agency could provide advice to courts on how suitable electronic monitoring was for offenders.

Attorney General Tony Buti said the GPS monitoring was not the reason that DV offenders were granted bail.

“The reason that bail is granted is because the judicial officer has determined the person in front of them should be granted bail in certain conditions. Then it’s mandated that electronic monitoring takes place,” he said.

The topic devolved into a shouting match in question time with Premier Roger Cook accusing opposition leader Basil Zempilas of being a coward for not supporting his government’s firearms laws.

“We know you’re a coward in the shadow we just want to know if you are going to stop being a coward,” he shouted.

Opposition corrective services spokesman Adam Hort would not reveal who or how he received the letter, only that he received it on Thursday.

He accused the state of a cover-up.

“When are you going to be honest with the people of Western Australia about this measure, about this promise that was put in place in December last year?” he said.

“This is bigger than teething problems. This appears to be some kind of cover-up of the information that’s been shared between commissioners and now not properly shared with the community.”

In response to the premier’s accusations, Zempilas said he would not be easily rattled.

“I’m here to hold this government to account on behalf of the people of Western Australia. They’re going to have to do a lot better than that,” he said.

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