Strengthening stalking response

Editorial: Danielle Ford

When Jane* met a guy at a bar and, after a couple of hours of casual conversation, exchanged numbers with him, she never could have imagined the terrifying ordeal that would unfold.

In the following days, Jane exchanged a few messages with the man, but alarm bells soon began to ring.

Infatuated with Jane, the man started sending her messages about getting married and having children with her.

When she stopped messaging him, he began contacting Jane’s friends and family through social media, and even went as far as finding her home address and sending a bouquet of 99 red roses to her on Valentine’s Day.

At this point, Jane contacted local police to make a report because the man’s obsession with her was causing stress and taking a severe psychological toll on her.

Police began investigating and accessed the man’s phone, which contained hundreds of screenshots of images of Jane, graphic descriptions of fantasies and messages he had sent her.

Using an evidence-based tool currently being trialled at Victoria Police, investigators were able to assess the man’s behaviours and develop an investigation plan that ended with him being locked up before the offending escalated.

Led by internationally-acclaimed investigative psychologist Cleo Brandt and Senior Sergeant Matthew Flood, a Stalking Project Team was established in 2022 to support the areas trialling the tool, called Screening Assessment for Stalking and Harassment (SASH).

Victoria Police is the first policing jurisdiction in Australia to use the SASH tool.

Using 16 evidence-based risk assessment questions, the tool enables frontline and specialist police to dig deep into the behaviours and psyches of stalkers to predict the likelihood of them escalating to violence.

This information is then analysed by police, trained by the project team, to establish an offending pattern rather than looking only at individual incidents, with the main priority of ensuring the victim’s ongoing safety and stopping the stalking.

Stalkers who are categorised as high-risk or complex are put under close investigation by local detectives, who will regularly engage with the victim and offender to ensure the victim's safety.

Low and moderate-risk stalkers are managed by frontline police, with oversight of detectives.

Ms Brandt, who helped embed the SASH tool in the Netherlands, said the pilot helps police better identify the ‘red flags’ that indicated a victim was in danger.

“When a stalking victim makes a report, it is often for the one thing — the most frightening thing the stalker has done,” Ms Brandt said.

“If police do not know to ask relevant follow-up questions, they can end up charging the stalker with one offence, such as breaching an intervention order or making threats, and not realise it is part of a broader pattern of problematic behaviour that needs addressing.”

The tool and response model are currently being trialled in Stonnington, Latrobe and Geelong police service areas and more than 400 officers have been trained as part of the pilot, which was recently expanded to cover a greater scope of cases.

Initially, the pilot focused just on non-family violence-related stalkers, such as ‘unsuccessful suitors’, like the man in Jane’s case.

However, in February 2023, the project expanded to include all cases of stalking, with Family Violence Command Assistant Commissioner Lauren Callaway acknowledging the importance of protecting victims.

“Stalking is stalking, regardless of the relationship to the offender,” AC Callaway said.

“This project will help our police better recognise and understand stalking behaviours, which will improve early intervention and increase safety for any victims.”

*Name has been changed to protect identity