Domestic violence is the biggest challenge facing NSW Police. They get 500 call-outs a day and devote five times more resources to the crisis – including 60 per cent of general duties time at some stations – than to any other type of crime.
Domestic violence is also linked to more than half of the state’s murders, such as the death of Molly Ticehurst in Forbes last week, allegedly at the hands of her former partner, which galvanised anger across the state.
Detective Inspector Michelle Ritchie leads the south-west Sydney Domestic Violence High-Risk Offenders Team. If a police command needs to hunt down or arrest a high-risk or dangerous offender, it will hand the case to her team or another like it.
“Sometimes we get the offenders within 20 minutes and other times it can take a week. Sometimes it takes months.” They use intelligence and covert strategies to hunt the offenders down. These high-risk offender teams, situated around the state, conduct regular sweeps under the banner of Operation Amarok.
The Amarok strategy is similar to one successfully used against outlaw motorcycle groups. It was known as Strike Force Raptor and, as one senior officer once put it, harassed bikies “within the bounds of the law to make sure they know we are there”.
The auditor’s criticism that just six people provided policy support to the entire force helped prompt the country’s first Domestic Violence Registry, which brings together specialists in investigations, the law, intelligence and victim support. They can advise police around the clock.
The registry particularly focuses on intelligence about high-risk, dangerous and repeated offenders. Almost a quarter of domestic violence offenders reoffend within two months of the first incident and more than half reoffend within the first five months.
Police are also looking at other ways to reduce the enormous amount of time officers spend on domestic violence cases. One incident can result in a crew filling out paperwork for the remainder of their 12-hour shift, curtailing their ability to respond to other calls.
[Ed: More of the same. We aren’t asking for ‘sweeps’ or police harassment of high risk offenders – we are asking for police to respond effectively when women call and that they charge the perpetrator – not the woman. This might involve a lot of time and be less exciting than a ‘strike force’, but that is why we have police.]
Source: 12ft