Councillor: “Warwickshire Police do not always take domestic abuse seriously”

A COUNCILLOR has thrown down the gauntlet over tackling domestic abuse having claimed Warwickshire Police “don't always take it that seriously”.

Councillor Jo Barker (Con, Shipston) produced a stirring address during Wednesday’s meeting of Warwickshire County Council’s health and wellbeing board, where the authority’s director of public health Dr Shade Agboola presented her annual report.

The key theme this year is prevention of domestic abuse with Dr Agboola recommending that police, health partners and stakeholders work together to “create a safe and encouraging environment for victim survivors to report abuse” through “a plan of aligned and jointly prioritised actions”.

She also advocated dedicated resource and support for child victims to help mitigate the impact of abuse, plus greater integration with education and maternity services and those that work on suicide prevention.

Statistics in the report show that nearly two thirds of domestic abuse crimes reported to police in Warwickshire – 64.7 per cent – had been closed due to victims no longer supporting police action and that just 8.7 per cent of cases resulted in what was described as a “positive outcome” – a caution or charge for the perpetrator.

Cllr Barker is involved with the food bank in Shipston and says the volume of instances she comes across is “huge”.

“It is well under-reported and I am glad the chief constable (Debbie Tedds) is here, and the PCC (Police & Crime Commissioner Philip Seccombe) because, actually, the police don’t always take it that seriously," she said.

“The number of, particularly women, although there are some men, that I have supported in this, trying to persuade them that yes, it is worth reporting this, yes, this is harassment, now this has become stalking, coercive control, domestic violence, someone being thrown down the stairs, and still very, very little [is] done.

“Women are not being taken seriously and that is not good enough.

"I would add that there are just some mean, mean, mean people around, they are not drunk, they are not on drugs, they just like doing it and we need to take it very much more seriously than we do.”

Chief Constable Tedds offered to look into specific cases in response to the comments.

She continued: “Violence against women and girls is one of our priorities, as a force we work really hard with our partners in the county in relation to that. It is not just about enforcement, it is about prevention.

“One of the reasons I invited myself to the board today is because actually, I would say the force is in a strong place in relation to the development of our new policing model which is preventing crime, engaging with the public, making sure we are visible and accessible to our communities but also investigating crime.

“I would be one of the first people to say the outcome rate in relation to crime per se is not good enough, and as a force we are working really hard to give trust and confidence back to our communities that we will take their complaints and matters seriously.

"That is important to me and I know it is important to the commissioner as well.

“As you all know, domestic abuse and violence, coercion and control, sexual violence, they are very complex matters that are very personal to individuals. There are many reasons why people sometimes don’t want to engage with us.

“That is why it is really important we work with the wider partnership to give people the widest opportunity to raise their fears, concerns and feelings over safety.”