Women’s Aid wants gardaí trained and monitored on domestic violence

Gardaí need to be trained and monitored in implementing domestic abuse policy and required to keep statistics, Women’s Aid has told the Policing Commission.

In its submission to the expert body, the charity said the experience of women victims of domestic violence with gardaí “can vary from the excellent to the very negative”.

Negative experiences include: Gardaí not enforcing orders or arresting suspects; being dismissive or dealing informally with the abuser; failing to take a statement or gardaí knowing the abuser and not taking action.

“In short, in our experience, the gardaí do not always follow the relevant Garda policy, for example, do not always provide information on services and do not always arrest for breaches of an order under the Domestic Violence Act,” said the submission.

“In certain cases comments made by the attending garda displayed negative attitudes to victims, a lack of understanding of domestic violence dynamics and of the risk of violence escalating.

“We still hear with huge frequency that the first time the gardaí are called, the only response is to tell a woman to get an order in Dolphin House despite whatever crime might have occurred.”

Women’s Aid said that in a “small but important number of cases” the woman has not reported an incident, or received an unhelpful response, because the perpetrator was a garda, a garda informant or relative/ close friend of a garda.

The submission said the women who report a positive experience with gardaí mention: Being believed; being given information; being referred to services and even brought there; providing ongoing support and checking up and arresting the abuser for breach of orders.

Women’s Aid welcomed four new divisional Protective Services Units in Cabra and Clondalkin in Dublin, Anglesea St in Cork, and Dundalk, Co Louth. It also praised the Ballymun Domestic Abuse Response Team and Store St Station.

It said more time should be given for domestic violence training to probationary gardaí and that continuous professional development training should be made available to all members.

In addition, there should be specific training on risk assessment and management to relevant gardaí.

The charity recommends that mechanisms are put in place to monitor adherence to the Garda Domestic Abuse Intervention Policy 2017.