‘Tell it once’ is still not happening for domestic abuse victims, councillors say

Councillors have raised concerns that cracks in the system mean survivors of domestic abuse are still facing barriers to reporting.

At a Police and Crime panel on Friday, the PCC Matthew Barber sat with councillors from local authorities across Thames Valley to discuss the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (DVDS), widely known as Clare’s Law.

Disclosure includes the Right to Ask (ask the police if one’s partner has a record of abuse) and Right to Know (where police take it upon themselves to inform someone of any such record).

This year, TVP saw the highest number of applications in the past three years.

But there remain concerns over the process, including triage – prioritisation of enquiries based on urgency.

Mr Barber said there is no official triage process in place, which concerned Cllr Susan Morgan of Buckinghamshire council (Lib Dem, Aylesbury North).

She said there could be dozens of people at ‘severely high risk’ whose cases aren’t being processed fast enough.

“That’s really concerning to me… It’s the difference between saving someone’s life or not,” she said.

Mr Barber explained that certain people’s names will automatically raise flags and become high-risk cases, which will then be addressed immediately – effectively a triage of sorts.

However, there are other problems with the process which relies on past reports of offences. These require victims to come forward, which can be difficult for them.

Mr Barber acknowledged that there is a tension between supporting victims and collecting evidence, which can be a distressing experience for them.

This could be down to the stress of the reporting process. Cllr Morgan raised further concerns about victims having to tell their story repeatedly, despite efforts by police to reduce that.

“Telling their story only one time… is not the experience that women are currently receiving from Thames Valley Police,” she said.

Other problems happen at the point of police intervention. Cllr Morgan recounted incidences where police attend a domestic violence call and yet, the alleged perpetrator is allowed to leave with any children that are in the home.

“There are clearly things that are still not right,” she said.

Cllr Lubna Arshad from Oxford City Council (cabinet member for ‘A Safer Oxford’) also asked how intersectionality was being considered – ie the interplay between different identities that may increase vulnerability, eg gender in combination with race, disability, age, etc.

She wanted to know how TVP was ‘bringing it all together’ to consider cultural aspects.

Mr Barber said: “With all due respect, it frankly doesn’t matter what colour or creed the member of public asking for the information is, that’s entirely irrelevant to the process.”

But Cllr Arshad disagreed it was irrelevant, saying that understanding what barriers people face will make members of the public more likely to share their experiences.

Moving onto the nighttime economy and violence against women and girls (VAWG), the subject of a purpose-built app to report harassment was raised again.

Councillors raised concerns about the effectiveness of current measures, which include Project Vigilant, covert and overt policing in nightlife areas to spot predatory behaviour.

But Mr Barber nixed the idea of a specific app, saying it might muddy the waters – the advice remains that people should call 999 in emergencies.

“That’s the way you will get the quickest and most appropriate response, so that remains my position,” he said.

Mr Barber said the force is also using sniffer dogs – the first in the world trained to detect common date rape drugs.