Police To Set Up New Abuse Unit

Police in Inverness have set up a new unit which will concentrate on domestic violence, cases involving vulnerable adults and child protection inquiries.

The Family Protection Unit begins work today after senior officers at Inverness Area Command recognised an increase of such offences in each area across the city.

It will be run by three police officers, with scope for that to increase to four if the initiative proves successful.

Inverness police receive more than 250 child protection inquiries a year and during 2005/6, 632 incidents of domestic abuse in the Highlands were reported to the police and 317 charges brought.

Chief Inspector Ian Cox described it as a “week-by-week ever-present issue” with offences including serious sexual abuse. Officers have also noticed more cases involving vulnerable and handicapped adults.

“The time has now come to say, right, we actually need to create a family unit for the city to deal with these types of issues,” said the chief inspector.

“Up until now, we have had to take officers away from general policing duties to service specific enquiries and they make a good job of it.

“However if they then have to go back onto their shift, they may not be able to follow through peripheral enquiries until days later — whereas by creating people who specialise in this, they can follow it through from A to Z.”

Roles have been reallocated within Inverness, using existing budgets and resources, with PC Mairi Steel, PC Donna Newton and PC Margaret McShane forming the unit.

“These officers will build up knowledge of families in need, of families with issues and of domestic violence victims,” added Chief Inspector Cox, who hoped it would bring continuity to inquiries by having the same officers dealing with similar cases. They will build up their expertise rather than dipping in and dipping out for specific inquiries.”

Les Hood, Children’s 1st services manager for Highland and Moray, welcomed the move.

He hoped dedicated officers would form a co-ordinated system which would help children who suffer abuse.

“I think it will be a better quality of response for what is a traumatic time for children and families,” he stated.

Statistics suggest at least one in five women in the Highlands experience some form of violence in their lifetime.

However, this figure could be much higher as many cases are not reported to police.

Moira Paton, head of community and health improvement planning for NHS Highland, recognised several benefits of the unit, including the potential to develop one-to-one relationships with the victims of domestic abuse.

“Police provide a vital service in respect of domestic abuse and what they are proposing is an enhancement of that service,” she commented.