Police force 'got it wrong' on domestic abuse team
- Published
A police force has doubled the size of its domestic abuse team after its Chief Constable admitted the force "got it wrong".
Northamptonshire Police said the team has been expanded to 45 members, including proactive officers, two inspectors, six sergeants and about 30 detective constables across the county.
The increase was agreed last March to provide better service and outcomes for those at the highest risk of domestic abuse.
Ivan Balhatchet, whose predecessor Nick Adderley was sacked for inventing key details of his Royal Navy service, said the service did not previously have "enough specialist people".
As reported by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, he said: "They [the domestic abuse team] didn't have the training and they didn't have the time, therefore victims suffer, safeguarding suffered and you can see that from some of the results we had there."
In the force's latest HMIC (His Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary) assessment,, external the force's investigation of crime was rated as 'requires improvement'.
The report stated that Northamptonshire Police should make sure it allocates investigations to officers and teams that have the 'capability and capacity' to carry out thorough investigations.
During the police watchdog's visit in September 2023, it found that some crimes involving vulnerable victims had been inappropriately allocated to response and neighbourhood policing officers, such as cases involving high-risk domestic abuse and cases relating to the possession of indecent images of children.
Mr Balhatchet added: "I can put my hands up and say we got it wrong and I think actually this extra resource will give a much better service to domestic abuse victims, making sure crimes of the highest risk go to the right trained units as well."
'Back on track'
The HMIC report found that in June 2023 Northamptonshire Police answered 78.5% per cent of its 999 calls within 10 seconds, which is below the 90% national target.
Mr Balhatchet said officers were focusing on getting response times "back on track".
He added that HMIC would be coming back to the force to carry out another independent inspection at the end of this year.
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- Published13 January