New research has revealed that uptake of domestic abuse case handling training by police forces in England and Wales is patchy at best, with nine forces having trained zero of their officers.
Indeed, just one force – Lancashire police – has trained all its officers in the training recommended by the College of the Policing, which “has been shown to lead to a dramatic improvement in outcomes for domestic abuse cases”, according to the Observer.
Despite eight years having passed since a report found a “startling lack of awareness of domestic abuse and inconsistent or poor practice” at most police forces, training has yet to have been conducted across the board, say the Observer. The 2014 report found a “fundamental overhaul” of training was needed.
However, of 38 forces that provided data with regards to the previous 8 years, just 23 have adopted the recommended domestic abuse training. Of this 23, 70% have trained less than half of their officers.
This translates to a shocking 10 million people living in areas wherein there are no officers who have received the recommended domestic abuse training.
Zoë Billingham, inspector of police at the report was published, said it was “disappointing” that forces were “not routinely training all their officers on the complexity of domestic abuse, understanding coercive behaviour and understanding how risk is escalating”, adding that this is “what saves lives”.
The Home Office said that despite the funding being in place, “significant barriers” including “cost and the necessary abstraction of officers to attend” remain in place.
