Major rise in stalking across South West
Incidents have risen by more than 1000% in some areas over the past five years
Last updated 15th Jun 2021
There has been a major rise in the number of stalking incidents recorded across our region.
These include any occasions where a victim has been subject to fixated, obsessed, unwanted and repeated behaviour.
According to new figures from the Local Democracy Reporting Service, recorded stalking over the past five years has increased by more than 1000% in both Wiltshire, and Avon and Somerset.
In 2015/16, 22 cases of stalking were reported to Wiltshire Police. In 2020/21, this rose to 333.
Over the same period, Avon and Somerset Police went from 144 stalking incidents to 1,933.
Coupled with this hike is the fact that these reports rarely lead to perpetrators facing justice.
In 2020/21, just 8.7% of stalking reports in Wiltshire resulted in someone being charged. This is significantly lower than in 2017/18, when the corresponding figure was 38.3%.
The charging rate fell from 16.1% to 4% in Avon and Somerset during those same three years.
Despite that, Stalking Protection Orders (SPO), which were introduced across the UK in January 2020, have largely not been used.
SPO's were created as a civil rather than criminal means to protect victims.
They allow the police to impose restrictions on suspected stalkers and are supposedly easier to impose than pursuing a criminal conviction, because the burden of proof is lower.
In England though, just 294 orders have been granted since January 2020, according to the most recent data. That's despite more than 55,000 stalking incidents being recorded by police in the nine months to December 2020 alone.
11 of these orders have been imposed in Wiltshire, with eight in Avon and Somerset.
'Any reports of an offence like stalking is too many'
Greatest Hits Radio has got reaction from Detective Inspector Joe Saunders, from Wiltshire Police: "Any reports of an offence like stalking, that affects people so massively, is too many.
"What we have worked really hard on over the last few years specifically .... is not only encouraging people to report offences such as stalking, but increasing understanding.
"That goes from the education of the public as to what the offence of stalking actually is, along with educating our officers to recognise the offence of stalking better and also ensuring that we record it correctly.
"Five years ago ... most police officers wouldn't really know what offence they're talking about particularly. Whereas now, we've educated ourselves to an extent. We're endeavouring to support the education of the public and I think we're getting somewhere with that".
Anyone needing support around this issue is now being urged to ring the National Stalking Helpline: 0808 802 0300. If someone is in immediate danger, then 999 should be called instead.