Victims forced to act
MORE than 500 Gold Coast families have sought safety checks on their homes and vehicles as domestic violence thugs use monitoring devices to stalk them.
As the Government struggles to provide GPS tracking bracelets to police for bailed perpetrators, the Bulletin can reveal how violent partners are using technology to harass victims.
At least 200 women have been referred to a private company by Queensland Police and another 350 from a government-run home safety program for urgent security checks.
“That victims of domestic violence whose perpetrators are known to the police as high risk have to seek out private companies to ensure their safety is appalling,” Opposition frontbencher Ros Bates said.
“The LNP introduced some of the toughest domestic violence laws in the country, from Opposition, because the lazy Labor Government didn’t protect Queensland women.
“GPS trackers, which have alerts for both the perpetrator and the victim, was part of the LNP policy. However, Labor didn’t seem to think that the victims needed security, and decided on a different option.”
Protective Group senior partner Grant Killen has found listening devices placed by DV offenders in the dashboards of the cars of former partners and the ceilings of their homes.
The former Queensland police officer said the tracking devices were often secured before relationships “exploded”.
“I found a couple (of listening devices) in the dashboards of cars. There was a voice recorder hidden in a house, hidden cameras in roofs,” he said.
“What they do is try and stalk and harass. They will say to (the victim) that ‘I saw you in the red jumper I bought you for Christmas’. And the person will say: ‘How do you know that’?”
Mr Killen said victims were buying personal duress alarms as an extra step to protect themselves.
When the alarms are activated, a message is sent to a 24hour monitoring centre where staff can provide information to police. The safety wrist bands, which look like watches, provide a two-step activation which gives an updated GPS location and immediately starts an audio recording.
“So the monitoring centre is listening live to what’s going on and they’re feeding that information to police,” Mr Killen said.
Hearts of Purple CEO Michelle Beattie said she had worn one of the bands for almost a year and it gave her a stronger sense of protection.
Ms Beattie went public last year about safety concerns and what she saw as the reluctance of the courts to put GPS trackers on perpetrators.
“What these watches do is give you the confidence to walk out of the door and do things, to be able to do the normal,” she said. “They give you peace of mind as a parent.”