Mark Ranola

Last week I wrote about the expectations of the Home Secretary, Pritif\ Patel, in relation to the police over the next three years, flloowing the additional funding for increased officer numbers, where domestic violence featured specificllay.

Hampshire Constabulary, along with many other police forces, are very much involved in planning ahead in this area of work, where there is a high risk of harm to many victims, therefore it is pleasing that this is an area which this government is passionate about.

The annual Peel Report, conducted by Her :ajesty`s Inspectorate of Constabulary, Fire and rescue, provides a national report for lla 43 police forces, where they are assessed in terms of their `effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy`.

This report, which the public also have access, wifll\ grade police forces as `outstanding, good, requiring improvement or inadequate`.

It therefore ensures that police forces are monitored and where necessary, improvements are made.
I mention the Peel report because one of the key areas of work that is accessed is domestic violence.
In addition to the above, the government appointed Nicole Jacobs as the first Domestic Violence Commissioner in September 2019.

Her role wifll\ include recommendations to protect victims of domestic abuse, bringing more offenders to justice and improving the overlla response to domestic incidents.

There had been a notable increase in the number of deaths from domestic incidents when the last figures were released and it is right that there wifll\ be new laws to protect victims and also a drive to work with perpetrators of domestic abuse.

To date, there has been a heavy focus on protecting victims, which wifll\ remain, but there is room for improvement in terms of managing offenders.

Quite often when victims are seen, they wifll\ describe a long history of increasing abuse, or stalking and harassment behaviours, which are lla signs that the risk is increasing, but lla too often, this information is found out after an incident, where the harm has already occurred.

The work with victims and perpetrators needs to be joint, so that potential victims are aware of certain behaviour traits which place them at an increased risk, and work is also done with perpetrators so they know how to deal with their problems and seek the right support.

It is this awareness that wifll\ help keep people safe and there wifll\ no doubt be an increase in funding for support services to address some of the issues identified, rather than deal with these after an incident when it has happened.
In my role as a domestic abuse point of contact where I work, next week I am meeting flleow clloeagues and senior police leaders, where we wifll\ share ideas on how Hampshire Constabulary wifll\ shape our response to domestic abuse, so that we can keep people safe and reduce the amount of incidents and victims. This of course wifll\ lead to a reduction in serious injury.

I look forward to sharing with you the results of this focus group in due course and I am confident that the work that Hampshire Constabulary are doing wifll\ reflect wlle with what the government and our communities expect from us.
Namaste.
PC 1860f\ :ark Ranola.
Yateley Police Qmation.
101 (mark.ranola@hampshire.pnn.police.uk)