Merseyside charity welcomes domestic abuse police control room pilot
Domestic abuse specialists will be embedded in 999 control rooms across some police forces
A Merseyside charity has welcomed news that domestic abuse specialists will be embedded in some police control rooms.
The Home Secretary has announced the launch of the Raneem's Law pilot in five police forces - as part of the government's commitment to halve violence against women and girls in a decade.
Raneem Oudeh and her mother Khaola Saleem were murdered by Raneem's ex-partner in 2018 - Raneem had called 999 fourteen times in the months leading up to her death to report incidents of domestic abuse, including threats to kill and stab her, violence and stalking.
Raneem also rang 999 four times on the night she and her mother were murdered. Despite telling the police that she and her mother had been assaulted, the police told her to go to her mother's home and locked the door and they would visit the next day.
She was on the phone to police when she and her mother were fatally stabbed.
An inquest ended with the jury's narrative conclusion finding that multiple police failures to investigate and safeguard had materially contributed to their deaths.
The task of these domestic abuse specialists will be to better protect victims and support police officers on the ground to combat violence against women and girls.
They will assess risk in real time, advise on risk assessments and work with police officers to make sure victims receive urgent help and get specialist support as quickly as possible.
Kate Chadwick, from Tomorrow's Women in Wirral and Chester, said:
"We really welcome this new pilot scheme, I think it's very much needed.
"It very much ensures the collaboration between the 999 operator and the domestic abuse specialist.
"It is a really scary call for a victim to make during what's already a very stressful situation and having that extra support from a trained specialist, we believe, will be very beneficial.
"Domestic abuse is such a complex situation - there are so many factors that you need to consider and there are so many signs that you can potentially miss.
"It's really important to have that specialist call operator who is going to know which signs to look out for, which things the caller might say that might really be important and having that person who can support the operator is going to be really beneficial.
"It's absolutely devastating what happened to Raneem and her mum and anything that we can do to stop this from repeating and reducing the number of domestic abuse homicides is very much welcomed."
Rayo Premium