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One woman tells of her experience of abuse and police failings
Thousands of people are at risk of harm or even murder because of widespread police failure in England and Wales to tackle domestic abuse, a report says.
The response from many police forces is alarming and ineffective, the report by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary said.
Home Secretary Theresa May said she would chair a new group to look at the issue and called for a radical change to the way police responded to it.
Police chiefs said they were working to improve their response, despite cuts.
'Serial offenders'Greater Manchester, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Gloucestershire police forces were specifically criticised in the report, which said Bedfordshire had only one dedicated domestic violence officer.
Forces criticised
- Greater Manchester Police
- Bedfordshire
- Gloucestershire
- Cambridgeshire
And it accused forces of unacceptable weaknesses despite domestic abuse being linked to 8% of crimes and police chiefs saying abuse was a priority.
Of 600 domestic assault files, half did not include pictures of injuries - a standard piece of evidence for a prosecution - the report said.
HMIC said police received more than one million calls a year relating to domestic abuse and almost 58,000 victims - the vast majority of them women - were at risk of serious harm or murder. It said three women a fortnight were being killed by a partner or former partner and a third of all assaults recorded by the police related to domestic violence.
In an exceptionally critical report, HMIC said chief officers must recognise that domestic abuse constituted a major problem that demanded comparable resources and focus to those devoted to tackling other high volume crimes such as burglary.
The report said only eight out of 43 forces were responding well to domestic abuse.
HMIC said that victims faced a "lottery" in how they were treated.
Sixteen of the 43 forces had no systems in place to prioritise calls from known victims or to prepare emergency response officers, and HMIC blamed many of the failings on the culture and ethos of individual officers.
"HMIC is concerned about the poor attitudes that some police officers display towards victims of domestic abuse," said the report.
"Victims told us that they were frequently not taken seriously, that they felt judged and that some officers demonstrated a considerable lack of empathy and understanding."
HM Inspector of Constabulary Zoe Billingham said three out of 10 police statements were missing "very important" pieces of information, while arrests were made in just 45% of cases in some police force areas.
"We're asking them to do their job - and their job is, where there's a crime that looks like it's been committed, to arrest. And if they don't they need to give a justification for not arresting," she told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme.
Mrs May, who commissioned the report, said it made depressing reading and the findings were deeply worrying.
"HMIC makes a series of recommendations to forces and I expect them all to be implemented quickly," she said.
"I am establishing a new national oversight group, which I will chair myself. I expect chief constables to respond to this report by changing radically their response to domestic violence."
'Second-class crime'Assistant Chief Constable Louisa Rolfe, of the Association of Chief Police Officers said domestic abuse presented "a huge challenge" to police forces.
"It's complex, it's difficult, and it's not something we can do alone," she told BBC Breakfast.
Forces praised
- Lancashire
- Dorset
- Durham
- Norfolk
- Northumbria
- Suffolk
- Thames Valley
- Warwickshire
The UK's justice system "doesn't always lend itself to the complexities of personal relationships", she added.
ACC Rolfe said there was "really good practice" in some forces.
Diana Barran, chief executive of charity Co-ordinated Action Against Domestic Abuse (CAADA), said Police and Crime Commissioners and Chief Constables had a responsibility to tackle the problem.
"We look forward to seeing the leadership, accountability and transparency that can move domestic violence from being treated as a second-class crime by the police to one where victims get the response that they deserve," she said.
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said Labour had been warning that action against domestic abuse has "deteriorated" for three years, branding the situation a "national scandal".
"We need answers from the home secretary about why things are getting so much worse and what she will do to improve action by the police, prosecution and support services too," she said.
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