Police chief: "We'll tackle domestic violence"

Monday 28 April 2014

Domestic violence represents 17% of all recorded crime in Jersey and the Police Chief says it remains one of the force’s top priorities.

With more than three domestic incidents reported to the police every day last year, Mike Bowron says that it’s an issue right at the top of his agenda.

Figures released last week showed that overall recorded crime has now dropped by a third since 2011. Recorded crime dropped 17% last year – following on from falls of 4% and 13% in the last two years. But Mr Bowron says that officers are still attending just as many incidents as they have always done, and says that they are increasingly dealing with complex issues such as sexual abuse, cybercrime, domestic abuse, organised crime and counter-terrorism.

He said: “Domestic violence is an ongoing campaign.

“It is 17% of all recorded crime, and it’s 8% in the UK. Our figures indicate that we are taking it seriously and recording it properly.

“We have really good voluntary groups and witness support groups who work with us and it’s just working working with victims through agencies to say ‘I’m not putting up with this anymore’. We want positive action, and that’s what we are doing. It is a very, very complex form of crime.

“We had 1,147 cases of domestic violence last year – that’s more than three per day. Not all of those generate crimes – half of those involved kids, and half involved drink.”