00:01It's an average Perth shopping centre and the home of a simple police sting.
00:08Officers planted an e-scooter similar to this one, left it and waited for someone to steal it.
00:16In May a 21-year-old was caught and pleaded guilty as part of what court transcripts show was a proactive operation to combat the theft of e-scooters.
00:26The man told the court he fell in the trap.
00:28The magistrate called his behaviour stupid, told him not to get caught in the trap again and gave him a one-month conditional release order of $250.
00:39She also expressed some concerns about the situation the young man found himself in on that day.
00:45One human rights researcher says there are more important issues for police to focus on.
00:50I would have thought with our prisons full to overflowing at breaking point, and this is consistently the concern of the inspector of the prisons,
01:00that we wouldn't be out clogging up courts and prisons with this kind of fairly minor offending, particularly where people are almost induced to commit a crime.
01:12Another legal expert says it's difficult to find data that shows whether this police approach can reduce theft.
01:19I've heard it does in certain circumstances. Those kinds of statistics are difficult to get hold of.
01:24But I think anything that reduces crime is a good thing, as long as civil rights aren't impeded.
01:31WA Police say they use seized or forfeited e-rideables in operations at zero cost to the community,
01:37and that as the target items are secured, the decision to steal rests solely on an individual and they will be held to account for their actions.
