Report - London Borough of Hillingdon

Hillingdon Domestic Violence Strategy 08/2005
The law in the Domestic Violence Crimes and Victims Act, which offers powers to arrest on
Common Assault, bolsters this policy.
The PSA Targets 2005-08 are to:
• Improve the delivery of justice by increasing the number of crimes for which an
offender is brought to justice to 1.25 million by 2008
• To reassure the public, by reducing the fear of crime and anti-social behaviour, and
building confidence in the Criminal Justice system.
The CPS strategy also aims to “strengthen the prosecution of hate Crime and crimes of
domestic violence”
The CPS are developing a more sophisticated approach to prosecuting by:
• Ensuring independence whilst working with victims professionally and sensitively;
• Actually seeking, and considering, the needs and requests of the individual victim
whilst addressing the wider public interest issues for stirrings potential future victims;
• Balancing the night of the victim and any children against the right, of the defendant;
• Meeting the shared needs of all victims, whilst also ensuring that specific needs of
different communities are taken into account;
• Addressing value for money within a preventative as well as prosecutorial framework.
The CPS strategic plan is largely compatible with the joined up partnership working approach
that is modern and efficient; with core values that are replicated with other domestic violence
strategies across local regions and nationally.
6. Hillingdon Police
Hillingdon Police have demonstrated great leadership in taking the domestic violence agenda
forward and creating a more sophisticated approach to dealing with this crime. They have
helped to dramatically improve effectiveness by gathering information that focuses more on
the pattern of behaviour of domestic violence perpetrators, which are linked to issues of
power and control.
The police have helped to provide 3 rd Party Reporting Sites to improve the quality of
information, enabling them to be more effective in response / reports and providing more
detailed evidence for the justice process.
The Borough commander works closely with Democratic Services and the Community Safety
team, and the police regularly send representatives to the domestic violence Executive
Committee, Domestic Violence Forum, Anti-Social Behaviour Teams, Victim Support, Elder
Abuse and Neighbourhood Watch. They also strategically contribute to Supporting People
Consultation Processes.
The Metropolitan Police have introduced an additional risk assessment form, which has been
implemented by Hillingdon police and contains more in-depth questions to help identify risks
posed by the perpetrator, thus helping to reduce repeat offending in the long term.
The Community Safety Unit is a dedicated team comprising 15 police officers (both uniform
and detective), which are branch supervised by 3 sergeants and deal with all domestic
violence related issues, from minor domestic arguments to serious assaults on either male
and female victims. The target group incorporates homophobic and race hate crime victims.
The officers work to identify repeat instances of all domestic incidents and attempt to reeducate
both victim and perpetrator. The officers deal with the victims, witnesses and
perpetrators.
PART 1 – MEMBERS, PUBLIC AND PRESS
Cabinet report 10 th November 2005 Page 81