Government cash aims to tackle domestic abuse
More than half a million pounds in funding will help police build on their work to tackle domestic abuse, Home Secretary Priti Patel has said.
The West Midlands and West Mercia forces have been given around £650,000 in total to expand domestic abuse teams and launch programmes aimed at supporting victims and bringing offenders to justice.
Reports of domestic abuse soared in the region during the coronavirus lockdowns.
It was revealed last week West Midlands Police will use the cash to recruit 33 experts to support victims.
Ms Patel said: "To prevent the abhorrent crimes of domestic abuse from happening in the first place, we must deepen our understanding of who commits them, why they do so, and how it may escalate.
“This fund builds on the considerable work already taking place to tackle domestic abuse and aims to better understand key behaviours so we can put a stop to them for good.”
It's part of an £11.3m Government cash pot for police forces across the country to tackle domestic abuse.
The programmes focus on interventions encouraging behaviour change to help stop perpetrators from committing domestic abuse, with the ultimate aim of preventing further crimes from being committed.
The new experts being brought into the West Midlands include Independent Domestic Violence Advocates [IDVA] and Independent Sexual Violence Advisers [ISVA].
Two of the experts will be tasked with working solely with people aged over 55.
Police records show between April 2019 and April 2021 around 8,600 people, aged 55 or older, reported to West Midlands Police that they’d been the victim of domestic abuse.
Nicky Brennan, victim’s commissioner for the Police and Crime Commissioner, said: "It is vital we do more for all victims of domestic and sexual abuse.
"The home should be a safe place for everyone to live or work and no individual should have that taken away from them by somebody who chooses to be abusive."
