The government has announced that domestic abuse specialists will be embedded in 999 control rooms. This is part of its plan to reduce violence against women and girls by half within 10 years.
The new plan is named after Raneem Oudeh, who was murdered by her former husband in 2018. On the day she and her mother were killed, she made six 999 calls after he assaulted her and followed her home. There were multiple other reports to the police; so the problem was that individuals and agencies had identified risk, but the police failed to act in time.
The new arrangement will take time to put in place and is being introduced to a few police forces, before being rolled out. This is not new law, there are many protective orders and laws, indeed Raneem had a Non Molestation Order; but this is about implementation. Specialists can ensure that police correctly identify high risk situations and act accordingly.
The domestic abuse specialists will be civilians, and need to be both recruited and trained, and that takes time. The hope is that an improved system will make a real difference, by helping the police to act on the information they are given.
