Ms O’CONNOR question to the LEADER of the GOVERNMENT in the LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL, Mrs HISCUTT
I ask the honourable Leader of the Government, on behalf of the Premier and Minister for Police, Fire and Emergency Management, in relation to the trespass charges applied under the Police Offences Act across the state, what is the average time taken from arrest to sentencing?
ANSWER
Mr President, section 14B of the Police Offences Act 1935, called the act, provides that it is an offence for a person to enter or remain on land, building, structure, premises, vehicle, aircraft or vessel without the consent of the owner. This offence is known as trespass and on conviction is punishable to a fine or a term imprisonment.
The Magistrates Court has provided the following data from their data repository, crimes in relation to the offences under section 14B(1): processing time for trespassing charges under the Police Offences Act of 14B(1) lodged between 14 December 2019 to 29 November 2024 – the total number of charges processed was 3809. The average days’ offences to lodgement is 69. The average days’ lodgement to finalisation is 245. The average days’ offence to finalisation is 314. The median days’ offence to lodgement is 47. The median days’ lodgement to finalisation is 162. The median days’ offence to finalisation is 236.
This data captures the time taken to process trespassing charges from the date the offence was committed to the finalisation of the matter, including the average and median days for different stages of the process. It is noted that the date of arrest may be different to the date of the offence.
