Strathclyde Police Domestic Abuse Task Force Targets More Than 100 Dangerous Offenders In Its First Year

In its first year of operation officers from Strathclyde Police's Domestic Abuse Task Force have arrested 105 dangerous offenders for a total of 370 crimes, such as attempted murder, rape, serious assault, breach of the peace and stalking cases. The proactive nature of the Task Force work is evidenced by the fact that of those 370 crimes, 320 had previously never been made known to the police.

In the last year the Force has seen a massive change in emphasis in Domestic Abuse investigations from one which was seen as being predominantly 'victim' centred to one which focuses on challenging offenders.

The Domestic Abuse Task Force provides the lead in the Force response to domestic abuse and the pioneering work undertaken by officers, has resulted in hundreds of previously unreported incidents being uncovered and a total of 264 targets being identified and considered by the Task Force.

The Domestic Abuse Task Force is the first of its kind in the country and the specialist team target offenders who have been identified as presenting the most significant risk of harm to victims and their families.

Highly skilled officers work in conjunction with divisional police officers and partner agencies to target domestic abuse offenders and to conduct proactive investigations into each and every aspect of their criminal lifestyle. This involves investigating these individuals for other criminal activity, such as drug dealing, gang violence and disqualified driving all with a view to reducing the opportunity they have to commit domestic abuse.

The Task Force uses skills and tactics that were previously only used in murder or other serious crime investigations. Members of the team collectively possess all the skills normally found in a major enquiry team, the main reason being that domestic abuse is a serious crime that is often difficult to investigate given that there are rarely independent witnesses and forensic opportunities can often be limited. Reliance is therefore place on sound investigative techniques, forensic awareness, and the ability to exploit all available intelligence opportunities.

Task Force officers target the most serious offenders. It focuses its attention on 'repeat' and 'serial' offenders who present a very real threat to victims and families. Investigations undertaken by the Task Force have found that this behaviour often spans many years with partners, many of whom, live in different areas of the Force and throughout the country Serial offenders are those who abuse more than one partner. Often, these offenders will behave in exactly the same way with the partners they become involved with committing the same serious crimes against them.

In the last year, officers have carried out numerous dawn raids, surveillance operations and targeted high tariff offenders in their efforts to track down and arrest the perpetrators, resulting in a positive outcome for victims. The Force's response sends out a clear message that domestic abuse is completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated.