ESSEX Police has revealed that reports of domestic abuse across the county have fallen over the last 12 months with almost 4,500 fewer offences and less repeat victims too.
The force claims that during this timeframe, improvements to how officers respond to domestic abuse incidents, protect and support victims, and manage offenders have all been made.
Alongside this, Essex Police has three specialist teams dedicated to prevent offending and reoffending.
The Proactive Order Enforcement Team manage the 'highest harm' offenders in Essex and monitor their activity, if they reoffend then they are detained.
The Domestic Abuse Problem Solving Team (DAPST) targets individuals identified as high-risk domestic abuse perpetrators and works to break their cycle of behaviour whilst addressing the safeguarding risks to any associated victims.
This trained group also look for opportunities to target and prosecute offenders of the cowardly crime.
Thirdly, there is now a new Rapid Video Response (RVR) Team on hand to capture evidence as quickly as possible from those that contact the emergency services to report domestic abuse, in effort to create stronger cases for prosecution.
Detective Superintendent Matt Cornish is Essex Police's lead for domestic abuse commented on how Essex Police has been updating its approach to tackle the issue.
He said: “In January 2023 we undertook a major review of our response to domestic abuse in Essex.
"With an aim of implementing the college of policing-approved domestic abuse risk assessment, and continuing to improve our response to domestic abuse victims and the management of domestic abuse perpetrators.
“As a part of this project, we updated our approach to domestic violence disclosure scheme (DVDS) disclosures.
"We're ensuring its adherence to the new Home Office guidance, seeking to improve both the number of disclosures made and enhancing the content of those disclosures.
“This ensures we are now reaching even more potential victims of domestic abuse and giving them the information, they needed to make an informed decision."
The DVDS scheme is also known as Clare's Law, a legislation that was put into place after the tragic murder of Clare Wood from Yorkshire, after her family campaigned for it.
Clare was murdered by her ex-boyfriend, George Appleton, in February 2009.
He had previously served prison sentences for stalking, harassing, and abusing women but this was unknown to Clare's family.
Under this law, individuals can ask police to to check whether a new or existing partner has a violent past (the ‘right to ask’).
If police checks show a person may be at risk of domestic violence from their partner, the police will consider disclosing the information.
Essex Police is using the law to its full effect according to the Detective Superintendent.
He said: “We recognised we needed to do more to support victims and potential victims of domestic abuse through the DVDS.
"We are making more disclosures and sharing more information than ever before.
“Following the implementation of our domestic abuse review team from August 1 to December 31, 2023, Essex Police made 264 disclosures, which is 65.7% of all processed applications in that time."
These figures are not in the office for national statistics as they have not yet been published.
