Online harassment reports to North Wales Police up 135% in two years, FOI shows
Recorded cyber-enabled harassment offences in North Wales have more than doubled in two years, according to figures released by North Wales Police.
The force recorded 1,514 such offences in 2025, up from 644 in 2023, an increase of 870 in two years.
The 2024 figure was 1,155.
The figures cover harassment offences flagged by officers as cyber-enabled or cyber-dependent, meaning the offence either took place online or was made worse by online activity.
They include harassment, putting people in fear of violence, breaches of restraining orders and racially or religiously aggravated harassment.
The data was released to Deeside.com under the Freedom of Information Act on 13 May 2026.
Over the same period, the proportion of cyber-enabled harassment offences resulting in a charge has fallen.
In 2023, 30 of the 644 recorded offences ended in a charge.
In 2025, 39 of the 1,514 recorded offences ended in a charge.
That means the charge rate fell from around one in 21 offences in 2023 to around one in 39 in 2025.
Arrests rose from 32 in 2023 to 91 in 2025.
The data covers the whole of the North Wales Police force area, which includes Flintshire, Wrexham, Denbighshire, Conwy, Gwynedd and Anglesey.
A breakdown by county or local policing area was not provided in the response.
The figures sit alongside a separate category of recorded crime, Malicious Communications, which has moved in the opposite direction.
Recorded Malicious Communications offences fell from 2,368 in 2023 to 1,183 in 2025, a drop of just under half.
Part of that fall is likely to reflect changes in how offences are classified.
The Online Safety Act 2023 created new offences covering false and threatening online communications, which began to appear in the North Wales Police data from 2024.
One of those new offences, sending a false communication with intent to cause harm, was recorded 55 times in 2024 and 37 times in 2025.
A further new offence, encouraging or assisting serious self-harm, was recorded eight times in 2024 and 16 times in 2025.
None of those 24 recorded incidents resulted in an arrest or charge.
A third category of offences, covering other communications and online safety legislation, has risen sharply.
One offence in particular, sending an offensive, indecent, obscene or menacing message over a public communications network, was recorded 37 times in 2023, 34 times in 2024 and 190 times in 2025.
Three of the 190 cases recorded in 2025 resulted in a charge.
North Wales Police confirmed in the same response that the force does not have a dedicated team for social media monitoring, open source intelligence or online investigations.
The force said that work is carried out by staff in various teams with varying levels of training.
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