NSW to criminalise secret GPS tracking after report highlighting number of devices bought by DV offenders

After their marriage of 25 years deteriorated and his wife expressed a desire to leave, a man in regional New South Wales bought a GPS tracking device from an auto parts retailer.

He used it to monitor her movements for the month, and up to at least the day before he shot and killed her, and then turned the gun on himself.

“The tracking appeared to form part of a series of behaviours that the offender used to prevent the victim from leaving the relationship,” wrote a NSW Crime Commission report in 2024.

Although his children and neighbour knew the tracking was taking place, under existing stalking laws, his conduct, undetected by the victim, may not have met the threshold in the state.

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The NSW government will introduce changes to parliament on Tuesday to make it a criminal offence to secretly monitor a person where the victim is unaware they are being stalked, as long as a reasonable person would consider it to cause someone to fear physical or mental harm.

It’s a response to the findings of the crime commission’s Project Hakea report in 2024, which identified that tracking and surveillance devices were increasingly being used to enable domestic violence and organised crime. It suggested one in four people who bought tracking devices in NSW had a history of domestic violence.

The government has passed previous reforms to domestic violence laws, including changes to bail settings, with support from the opposition.

The premier, Chris Minns, said on Tuesday that technology had been “weaponised against women, and our laws have not kept pace”.

“No one should have to discover they have been monitored for months or years with no legal recourse.”

The government said the “carefully crafted, targeted offence” would not criminalise things such as parents tracking social media use, or following someone on social media out of genuine interest.

Project Hakea was tasked at investigating the use of tracking devices by organised crime networks, but found they were also being used by DV perpetrators to “to stalk, intimidate, monitor and harass” victims.

Between 2010 and 2023, 82% of those charged with unlawfully using a tracking device in NSW involved domestic violence offences.

In one case, a male offender had bought more than 15 devices online, and had installed magnetic and hardwired GPS trackers in the victim’s car. She reported three other occasions on which she discovered devices in her home or vehicle.