Police consider use of facial recognition technology to catch WA’s worst paedophiles amid disgusting figures

Police in WA are considering using facial recognition technology to catch predators before they pounce, as shocking new figures reveal the State’s worst paedophiles were charged with a child sex crime almost every day this year. In what would be an Australian-first, police have revealed they are looking into the use of hi-tech cameras — that could soon be rolled out in public places — to identify known child sex offenders and protect kids from harm. Police say the cameras could be used at designated events or locations, declared to the public, and trace people in real-time to detect offenders who should not be in the vicinity of children. “We know that these cameras will provide police early alerts and an opportunity to prevent serious offending when wanted people enter areas, certain events, certain locations, and we want to keep the public safe and children safe,” Deputy Police Commissioner Kylie Whiteley told The West Australian. Similar technology was famously used in the UK earlier this year to alert police to paedophile David Cheneler walking a six-year-old girl home from school. The live facial recognition cameras flagged 73-year-old Cheneler — who was in breach of an order that prohibited him from being alone with a child under 14 — and he was swiftly arrested by police. The child’s mother was unaware of Cheneler’s history and police claimed that had he not been apprehended, he may have gone on to abuse the child. “Now is the time to start talking about how do we use facial recognition?” Ms Whiteley said. “How do we use artificial intelligence to help us earlier identify those people that we know are sex offenders or are wanted by us? “We need to have an open, public conversation about it because you don’t want to use artificial intelligence unless it’s for the right reasons. “But certainly, I don’t think anyone would argue that identifying and intervening (with) a registered child sex offender is a bad use of technology.” Figures obtained by The West reveal there are now 4485 reportable sex offenders in WA. They are often convicted of the most serious crimes against children and are required by law to register their details and whereabouts with police. So far this year, police have preferred 356 child sex offences against reportable offenders — almost one a day. Of those offences, 108 involved child exploitation material. A further 861 charges were laid against reportable offenders for failing to comply with their reporting conditions between January and November this year. Breaches can include having unauthorised contact with children, not reporting a change of address, phone number, vehicle, or social media account, or not reporting to police as required. Police have also investigated 4489 sex offences involving children to date this year. They include 3170 offences which involved allegations of assault, 872 which involved child exploitation material, and 447 that were crimes that did not involve an assault but may include recording and communication-based offences. Almost 80 per cent of those cases were reported in Perth, while 20 per cent were in the regions. But shockingly, Ms Whiteley said child sexual abuse was still chronically under-reported and the statistics did not reveal the full extent of the issue. “In Australia, the figures are one in three girls and one in five boys have been harmed by child abuse under the age of 18,” she said. “In 2023, we received 1767 reports where children where victims of sexual assault, but even more concerning was 12 of them were under 12 months of age. “But those numbers are actually very under-reported.” Ms Whiteley said therefore, there was “so much more that we need to do”. She said if WA Police decided to use facial recognition technology to identify known offenders, it would be the first policing jurisdiction in the country to do so. In 2023, WA Police became the first police force in the world to develop an online platform, Safe2Say, which allows victims of sex offending to speak to a trained officer and report offences anonymously from their own homes. “We’ve seen a 57 per cent increase on the last financial year in that portal, but again, it’s far from what we know would be the number of offences that occur, both in Western Australia and around the world, sadly,” she said. In another use of technology, earlier this month, changes to legislation was made which now requires offenders to update their details on an online portal, instead of having to report to a police station. Ms Whiteley said the measure meant offenders’ details were updated in real-time, which had proven to be “much more effective and efficient”. “So, again we were talking about how do we do better using technology tracking those people who we need to track to keep kids safe,” she said. However, Ms Whiteley noted 70 per cent of child sexual assault occurred in a place where children should be safe — and 90 per cent of crimes are perpetrated by a person they know. “Those figures don’t include indecent dealing and online child exploitation, so you can imagine the volume online, where people are looking for children online, looking for child exploitation material online,” she said. “That sort of work is at the forefront of our mind in terms of making sure we are using those contemporary tools, because we have to protect our officers too, who are having to work through lots of material seized, phones, and computers and things like that. “But we can’t do it unless we get really good tools and good community support, but also that we do everything we can do so that victims can report matters.” Kids Helpline: 1800 55 1800