Another Constable

Ok, perhaps not the most PC of topic titles, but as a Prodigy fan, this songtitle always springs to mind when I’m dealing with domestic violence.

I’m working in the “DV” car tonight, which basically means being ringfenced to deal only with domestic violence incidents (unfortunately they are so commonplace as to warrant a dedicated patrol). The plan being that the standard response cars go to scene and arrest the offender, swiftly followed by us who (in company with a Crime Scene Investigator) will take photographs, statements, fill out the domestic violence forms etc, freeing up the response patrol to basically deal with the prisoner and then get back out on the streets.

Two things baffle me. Firstly, the amount of men that still think it’s perfectly acceptable to hit women (ok - in self defence I could see it, just… in extreme circumstances), especially over the most trivial of things. It seems the men are so insecure in their relationships that they only way they feel they can keep control is by violence and psychological abuse. Maybe I’ve always been blessed with perfect relationships, but I can count on 1 hand the amount of times I’ve even had a stand up shouting match with a partner in the last 15 years - for some it seems heated arguments are the norm, and for many others it is kicking seven bells out of each other that is the norm.

The second thing that baffles me above all else is the number of women we deal with who are badly beaten, clearly in a living hell, but refuse our help and then kick off on us for arresting the offending partner. Usually accompanied by the words “But I love him”, “He’s done nothing wrong, leave him alone”, “He’s my world” etc. It’s hard to have sympathy in these situations, but I try my best. I realise the women is generally putting on a show to her arrested partner, making out she wants the police to do nothing for fear of even further reprisals from the bully (I’d use more expletives but my site gets blocked for various friends then who read me at their work where the content filter kicks in!)

So much effort goes into investigating domestic violence now, and rightly so, but it is frustrating to spend hours and in many cases days investigating domestic assaults only for the aggrieved to withdraw their compaint and their evidence. Thankfully the CPS are being more robust in the charging of offenders, even without the support of the aggreived (or at least our local CPS are - CPS Direct are still as much use as a chocolate teapot in this regard).

Tonight, we’re expecting a busy night. Drunken thugs will be going home after the England match, and I’m sure that if England lose, there will be some poor unfortunate abused partners at the wrong end of a beating. Though I suppose they’re probably just as likely to get a kicking even if we win - most likely for some nonsense like not cooking the chips for long enough, or forgetting to fill the fridge up with beer after the last binge.

I sincerely hope I’m not busy - not because I’m a shirker and want an easy night, but because a quiet night for the DV car means the battered and abused have had at least 1 more night of peace.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 15th, 2006 at 11:12 am and is filed under Police Matters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.