Stalking and harassment (FOI Ref:748A/25)

Request

 

1. The total number of stalking and harassment offences cases your police force has dealt with per financial year, for the past five years. Please display the total case numbers for stalking and harassment separately. 

1. The total number of stalking and harassment cases in which a physical tracking device was used. This can include an Air Tag, SmartTag, Tile, GPS tracker, car tracker. Please display the total case numbers for stalking and harassment separately, and provide this information per financial year, for the past five years.

1. The total number of stalking and harassment offences in which a digital tracking device was used. This can include a social media tracker, Life360, phone App tracker. Please display the total case numbers for stalking and harassment separately, and provide this information per financial year, for the past five years.
2. The total number of controlling / coercive behaviour cases your police for has dealt with per financial year, for the past five years. 
3. The total number of controlling / coercive behaviour cases in which a physical tracking device was used. This can include an Air Tag, SmartTag, Tile, GPS tracker, car tracker. Please provide this information per financial year, for the past five years.
4. The total number of controlling / coercive behaviour cases in which a digital tracking device was used. This can include a social media tracker, Life360, phone App tracker. 

Please provide this information per financial year, for the past five years.

You then added a further question:

1. Please can you tell me the total number of Stalking Protection Orders that have been applied for by your police force? Please give this data per financial year, for the past 5 years. 

We clarified with you on 9^th April 2025 and you responded the same day, your amended request reads:

1. Please may the search include all offences considered under stalking and harassment which are found in sections 2, 2A, 4 and 4A of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997(PHA 1997) and section 42A (1) Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001. I would also like for it to include the Section 32 Crime and Disorder Act 1998which creates racially or religiously aggravated versions of the PHA 1997 offences, and where a PHA offence involves hostility based upon sexual orientation, transgender identity or disability, then the sentence uplift provisions of section 66 Sentencing Act 2020 will apply.

 

2. Of these please conduct an M.O Summary keyword search using the keywords of 'GPS Tracker', 'Air Tag', 'Car tracker', 'tracking device' and provide these for each offence category as outlined in Q1.

 

 

3. The number of Stalking Protection Orders dealt with by your police force. 

 

 

Response

 

Please find enclosed our response.

1. Please may the search include all offences considered under stalking and harassment which are found in sections 2, 2A, 4 and 4A of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997(PHA 1997) and section 42A (1) Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001. I would also like for it to include the Section 32 Crime and Disorder Act 1998which creates racially or religiously aggravated versions of the PHA 1997 offences, and where a PHA offence involves hostility based upon sexual orientation, transgender identity or disability, then the sentence uplift provisions of section 66 Sentencing Act 2020 will apply

Data for Stalking
Offence Title	Apr-20 to Mar-21	Apr-21 to Mar-22	Apr-22 to Mar-23	Apr-23 to Mar-24	Apr-24 to Mar-25	Total
Breach of Stalking order/interim stalking order	12	9	14	15	22	72
Notification offences under the Stalking Protection Act 2019	0	16	4	0	0	20
Pursue course of conduct in breach of S1(1) which amounts to stalking	3772	0	0	0	0	3772
Stalking involving fear of violence	273	0	0	0	0	273
Stalking involving serious alarm/distress	407	0	0	0	0	407
Total	4464	25	18	15	22	4544

 

 

Data for Coercive Behaviour
Offence Title	Apr-20 to Mar-21	Apr-21 to Mar-22	Apr-22 to Mar-23	Apr-23 to Mar-24	Apr-24 to Mar-25	Total
Attempted - Engage in controlling/coercive behaviour in an intimate / family relationship.	0	1	2	1	3	7
Engage in controlling/coercive behaviour in an intimate / family relationship.	1645	4047	4091	3663	4032	17478
Total	1645	4048	4093	3664	4035	17485

 

 

 

Data for Harassment
Offence Title	Apr-20 to Mar-21	Apr-21 to Mar-22	Apr-22 to Mar-23	Apr-23 to Mar-24	Apr-24 to Mar-25	Total
Attempted - Harassment - Breach of a restraining order	0	2	0	1	0	3
Attempted - Harassment - Putting people in fear of violence	0	3	6	1	0	10
Attempted - Racially or religiously aggravated harassment, alarm or distress	0	5	0	0	1	6
Attempted - Racially or religiously aggravated intentional harassment, alarm or distress	0	0	1	0	0	1
Breach of injunction against Harassment 1997	166	0	0	0	0	166
Causing intentional harassment, alarm or distress	8999	14865	14118	8170	5688	51840
Harassment	11410	19579	14989	13156	11379	70513
Harassment - Breach of a restraining order	65	774	827	718	739	3123
Harassment - Breach of conditions of injunction against harassment	15	62	15	21	13	126
Harassment - Putting people in fear of violence	29	3916	4594	4582	4192	17313
Harassment etc. of a person in his home	0	46	29	7	6	88
Harassment, alarm or distress (S5 POA)	424	809	687	61	0	1981
Intentional Harassment Alarm or Distress	0	24	0	0	0	24
Racially or religiously aggravated harassment, alarm or distress	132	411	328	292	322	1485
Racially or religiously aggravated intentional harassment, alarm or distress	2498	3556	3376	2739	2628	14797
Racially/Religiously aggravated harassment with fear of violence	92	0	0	0	0	92
Racially/Religiously aggravated harassment without violence S2	450	0	0	0	0	450
Unlawful harassment of Occupier	0	0	1	0	1	2
Total	24280	44052	38971	29748	24969	162020

 

Data for Stalking-Harassment (includes records in separate tables for 'Stalking', and 'Harassment'
Offence Title	Apr-20 to Mar-21	Apr-21 to Mar-22	Apr-22 to Mar-23	Apr-23 to Mar-24	Apr-24 to Mar-25	Total
Attempted - Engage in controlling/coercive behaviour in an intimate / family relationship.	0	1	2	1	3	7
Engage in controlling/coercive behaviour in an intimate / family relationship.	1645	4047	4091	3663	4032	17478
Total	1645	4048	4093	3664	4035	17485

 

2. Of these please conduct an M.O Summary keyword search using the keywords of 'GPS Tracker', 'Air Tag', 'Car tracker', 'tracking device' and provide these for each offence category as outlined in Q1

Keyword (as per FOI request)	Apr-20 to Mar-21	Apr-21 to Mar-22	Apr-22 to Mar-23	Apr-23 to Mar-24	Apr-24 to Mar-25	Total
Airtag	0	1	2	5	13	21
Car Tracker	1	0	0	0	0	1
GPS Tracker	2	4	1	1	0	8
Tracking Device	18	13	13	12	19	75
Air Tag / Tracking Device	0	0	1	1	0	2
GPS Tracker / Tracking Device	0	1	0	0	0	1
Total	21	19	17	19	32	108

 

 

3. The number of Stalking Protection Orders dealt with by your police force. 

 

WMP DATA AS AT 15.04.25
Total files referred since 2020	201
Files referred in 2024	60
Files referred in 2025	18
Total number of ISPO's since 2020	49
Total number of full SPO's since 2020	43
Pending files where app not yet made	18
Ongoing matters with onwards court date	8
Appeals	0
Total number of ISPO's - 2023	8
Total number of ISPO's - 2024	22
Total number of ISPO's 2025	5
Total number of SPO's - 2023	7
Total number of SPO's 2024	25
Total number of SPO's - 2025	5

 

Please note that this data should be interpreted with caution. Comparing numbers of incidents/crimes can be misleading and does not necessarily indicate the likelihood of someone being a victim of crime. In addition, the number of incidents/crimes recorded in an area over a period of time can be influenced by a number of factors. Consequently, statistics on incidents/crimes for one period may not necessarily be a good indicator of future incidents in that area. 

 

Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that this data has been extracted from a number of data sources used by forces for police purposes. The detail collected to respond specifically to your request may be subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are considered when interpreting the data. 

 

The figures provided therefore are our best interpretation of data which has relevance to your request, but you should be aware that the collation of figures for ad hoc requests may have limitations and this should be considered when those data are used.  

If you decide to write an article / use the enclosed data we would ask you to take into consideration the factors highlighted in this document so as to not mislead members of the public or official bodies, or misrepresent the relevance of the whole or any part of this disclosed material.