Review finds police delays in responding to some emergency domestic abuse calls

There have been delays in police responding to some emergency domestic abuse incidents, a watchdog review has found.

The report by Criminal Justice Inspection Northern Ireland (CJI) also found that a new domestic abuse offence had not been correctly identified by police and prosecutors in a number of cases examined by inspectors.

In February 2022 new domestic abuse laws came into force in Northern Ireland making coercive control a specific offence.

The Domestic Abuse and Civil Proceedings Act (Northern Ireland) closed a gap in the law by criminalising a course of abusive behaviour that occurs on two or more occasions, against an intimate partner, former partner or close family member.

It also introduced a series of aggravating factors that can be considered by judges when sentencing in cases of domestic abuse.

The CJI looked at how the Department of Justice (DoJ), PSNI, Public Prosecution Service (PPS) and Northern Ireland Courts Service had implemented the new legislation.

Jacqui Durkin, chief inspector of Criminal Justice in Northern Ireland, said: “Inspectors engaged with a wide range of stakeholder organisations including Women’s Aid, Men’s Advisory Project, the NSPCC and Victim Support Northern Ireland to secure their views.

“Case file reviews were carried out on 70 police investigation files and 98 prosecution files to understand how the PSNI and the PPS were applying the Act to relevant cases.”

Inspectors found the DoJ and its partners in the criminal justice system had done a lot of work individually and collectively to prepare for and implement the legislation.

Inspectors found that police officers responded to domestic offences in a “proactive and effective way” and decision-making by PPS prosecutors was also sound.

However, inspectors identified there were some delays in the PSNI response provided to emergency and priority incidents and the quality of risk assessments completed by officers could be enhanced with greater detail shared with statutory and voluntary partners.

The review also identified that improvements are required in how police and prosecutors apply the domestic abuse offence.

Ms Durkan said: “Our case file review found the offence had not been correctly identified by police officers in up to two fifths of cases examined and by prosecutors in one quarter of cases looked at by inspectors.

“There also remained a need for PPS prosecutors to better record the reasons for their decisions to prosecute or not prosecute within their prosecution case files.

“We recommend that collaboration and communication between the PSNI and the PPS needs to improve to maximise the use of the Act provisions, particularly the use of the domestic abuse offence and aggravators applied when they can and should be, as well as revisiting the concept of specialist PPS prosecutors.

“More work also needs to be done to improve the use of the aggravators, particularly as they apply to children and fulfil the Act’s intention to better protect children from harm.”

The chief inspector added: “I recognise any new legislation can be challenging to implement and many positive steps have been taken but this review has identified a number of areas where further improvements are needed now.

“We have made two strategic and nine operational recommendations to support and assist criminal justice organisations to improve how the legislation is used as intended.

“Our review next year will include a focus on the report recommendations and their implementation, and I would encourage criminal justice organisations to take action on the recommendations we have made to ensure this legislation is implemented with the same energy and drive needed to create it.”

Justice Minister Naomi Long said her department had commenced work on advancing relevant recommendations in the CJI report.

She said: “I welcome the comprehensive report, which is largely positive in terms of the first two years since the Act became operational.

“Following the implementation of the Act, there was a 3% increase in the number of domestic abuse crimes recorded in 2022-23.

“Whilst 22,343 domestic abuse crimes in one year is still too high, the figures indicate the legislation is having an effect.”

PSNI Detective Chief Superintendent Lindsay Fisher said: “The report recognises the ‘comprehensive’ online training package that we developed to enhance our officers’ and staff knowledge of this complex crime type in order to achieve ‘timely and effective’ investigations.

“To date, thousands have undertaken this training and because of this it was noted how incident calls were being appropriately graded and the right systems and assessment tools utilised.

“We have since been focusing on fine tuning our response and ensuring we are making the most of all investigatory avenues available to us to get the best possible criminal justice outcomes.”