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Spike in family violence

Mark DonaldsonJoondalup Times

THE district police chief has described a worrying increase in reports of domestic violence in the past year.

Officers have responded to 257 more assaults in the 12 months to July 31 – an 11.3 per cent increase Superintendent Allan Adams described as "significant".

Supt Adams said the rise was unacceptable, but emphasised police had done "a lot of hard work" to identify community members who were repeat victims of violence.

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While he made it clear the statistic was concerning, he said it was also a good indication officers were seeking out more reports. "Obviously there's a degree of difficulty around policing these because they happen behind closed doors generally," he said.

"But we do a lot of work with our government agency partners in trying to identify those vulnerable people in our community.

"While I don't look at an increase in domestic violence in a positive way, it does give me a degree of satisfaction that the police are taking it seriously, that they're out there looking for reports, they're out there in their community making sure we've got as good a knowledge as possible."

Supt Adams recalled statistics as being "too low" in February. The drop in assaults did not match what he had heard from women's refuge centres.

"We knew in February that our domestic violence numbers had decreased on the previous year," he said.

"When you look at the numbers, you think"that's good", but I have a very good relationship with a number of our agencies.

"The Pat Giles Centre is a key player. They were telling me that the demand for their services was higher than ever."

Supt Adams said this indicated to him that there had been some "slippage in the attitude of police officers" towards domestic violence.

A training regime was implemented and the statistics rose quickly.

"This confirmed to me there was a problem at the local policing level in not receiving the reports that needed to be received," Supt Adams said.

GETTING HELP

Are you a domestic violence victim?

Pat Giles Centre: 9300 0340

Local police support unit: 9400 0936

Legal Aid: 1300 650 579

Angelhands Inc: 9272 2242