I was listening to HMI Zoe Billingham (Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, Fire and Rescue Services) this morning on LBC she is very supportive of police officers but was criticizing the police for not providing victims with the options they needed and part of this was the lack of training that the police receive on protection orders, non-molestation orders specifically.
She put the huge reduction of police prosecuting offenders and the increase in domestic abuse squarely at the feet of the police for not using the tools that are available – again specifically protection orders like non molestation orders.
And I must say I totally agree with her. So much good work has been done in this sector over the last few years but for some reason the police have instigated a backwards step change.
Over the last few years I have seen police forces declining our offer of free training on the process and benefits of non-molestation protection orders. This is FREE training to explain how one of the most effective civil protection orders work and they don’t want it!
I have been given various excuses from various police forces for the reasons why they do not want our training, none of which stack up.
Victims need choices and the police need to be aware of those choices, but the College of Policing do not train officers in this vital tool. Nobody does this training apart from us.
I have warned the police that they are putting victims lives at risk but they just don’t seem to care.
Now this has been highlighted by Zoe Billingham perhaps there will be a change of heart, a change back to the time when officers on the front line actually knew about all the remedies and tools available.
In 2020 NCDV helped over 10,000 victims get the protection of a non-molestation order, this year, unless the police take some positive action fewer victims will receive this protection which sadly but inevitably means more victims will die at the hands of their abuser.
Mark Groves
CEO