It's been revealed more than 80 offenders wearing traceable ankle bracelets had been disconnected from monitoring as a result of several service outages.
Last night in Parliament it was revealed 81 offenders with trackable ankle bracelets had been disconnected from monitoring as a result of Telstra outages earlier this year.
Shadow Minister for Corrective Services Zak Kirkup said it was incomprehensible the Government did not alert the community to the dangers posed by offenders able to roam the community without being able to be tracked.
“If there is a telecommunications outage and offenders cannot be tracked, the community needs to be made aware,” he said.
The government weren't forthcoming with exact details of how many were untraceable at what times, but a total of 81 offenders were confirmed to be off the grid for a period of time.
“The first the community has heard of this is through questioning in Parliament," Mr Kirkup said.
“The question must be asked, why did it take questioning in Parliament for this information to be made public? Why didn’t the Minister bring this to the attention of the public at the height of the risk of these offenders being in public without being able to be monitored.”
Mr Kirkup said the Government needed to assure the public they would not be kept in the dark if there was a similar telecommunications blackout in the future in which offenders were unable to be tracked.
“It is the responsibility of the Minister for Corrective Services to be open and transparent about these very serious and concerning security issues,” he said
“He would have received a briefing that the Department had lost track of the offenders as a result of the outage, and he should have insisted on warning the public that this had occurred.
“His failure to do this smacks of a cover up. I am concerned he may not have wanted the public to know that offenders were out in the public and not being tracked."
Mr Kirkup wants the Minister for Corrective Services to implement a public alert system to notify residents when necessary.
“It is now incumbent on the Minister to insist his Department develop a communications protocol to alert the public whenever there is an incident in which tracked offenders are unable to have their movements monitored," he said.
“The public needs to be assured they are protected from these offenders. This is the Minister’s responsibility and he needs to take action now that this incident, and the potential for further such incidents, has been exposed.”
Long-term Pinjarra resident gifts Shire heritage railway carriages, brake vans
Extent of damage to Bar Therapy following devastating fire revealed
MARC pool reopening date announced after three year closure
Yunderup Island blaze under control
Mandurah's Bar Therapy damaged by fire
Postman injured in Wannanup crash
Man charged after allegedly stealing service medals from Greenfields storage unit
South West resort receptionist charged with 32 fraud offences
Daughter of Port Kennedy hit-and-run victim pleads for offenders to hand themselves in