Devon and Cornwall Police made 1,315 arrests on charges of stalking or harassment between April 2019 and March 2024, with arrests rising by a massive 243 per cent in that time, according to new data.

This data, collected by criminal injury claim experts JF Law, has been revealed as the government unveiled plans to crack down on stalking.

Arrests for stalking or harassment, both of which are offences under The Protection from Harassment Act 1997, have consistently risen until last year.

There were 130 arrests recorded in 2019/20, a figure which rose slightly to 167 the year after.

Arrests then went up to 240 in 2021/22 before increasing again to 332 in 2022/23.

In the most recently completed financial year, 2023/24, Devon and Cornwall Police logged 446 stalking or harassment arrests.

11 people arrested for stalking or harassment across the five-year period were under 18 years old.

The most commonly spotted age group was of 25-34 year-olds, who accounted for 407 of the offences. Meanwhile, 35-44 year-olds were arrested on 345 occasions. All age groups were represented in the figures, with Devon and Cornwall Police recording 39 cases where the offender was aged 65 or older.

White Ribbon Day, an international campaign aimed at eliminating violence against women and girls, took place on November 25th this year. The theme of this year’s campaign was ‘It Starts With Men’. In Devon and Cornwall, out of the offences where the police identified the suspect’s gender, a shocking 93.38 per cent were identified as male.

In November police forces published an ‘action plan’ to act on a super complaint about police handling of stalking reports, which was raised two years previously by the Suzy Lamplugh Trust. An independent investigation by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS), the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), and the College of Policing led to a series of recommendations for police forces.

On December 3, the Home Office announced plans to roll out anti-stalking measures including the ‘Right to Know’ statutory guidance which will allow police to release an offender’s identity “at the earliest opportunity.”

The measures would also make Stalking Protection Orders (SPOs) more available.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “We will use every tool available to us to give more power to victims and take it away from the hands of their abusers.

This starts with empowering police to give women the right to know the identity of their online stalkers, strengthening stalking protection orders and ensuring that the police work with all support services to give victims the protection they deserve.”

The announcement also included a Home Office vow to publish data on stalking offences. The data is not currently publicly available, while the Ministry of Justice did not respond to JF Law’s request to provide the latest data on SPOs.

12 years on from The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 identifying stalking as an offence separate from harassment in law, there are still calls for further reform.