Petition asks for commissioner to rethink cuts to domestic abuse team in Warwickshire

Labour's candidate for Warwickshire's Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) has called for a rethink on a decision to make a number of the county's domestic abuse risk officers (DAROs) redundant.

Ben Twomey made the appeal during this week's meeting of the county's police and crime panel when he also presented a 1,000-name petition.

Speaking at the virtual meeting he explained that a pandemic lockdown was not the time to be making such cuts and urged members of the panel to back his call.

Mr Twomey said: "We are calling on the PCC to stop the cuts to Warwickshire's domestic abuse risk officers. At this moment people are trapped in abusive relationships here in Warwickshire, children are growing up in violent homes."

He added that his petition had been signed by 1,012 residents concerned at the loss of nine highly trained members of staff.

He said: "They have over 70 years experience of police service between them and currently they are all being made redundant. This needs to be urgently halted. They are the emergency support for victims in the first 72 hours when they reach out to the police. They often pick up victims and drive them to refuges all over the country.

"If ever there was a moment to cut the team, this is not it. Local people including children could suffer serious harm as a consequence of this decision – people could lose their lives."

The current commissioner, Philip Seccombe, questioned some of the statements made in the petition, saying they were incorrect and gave the wrong conclusions.

He said: "I am concerned that the petition gives the impression that the service given to victims of domestic abuse – which is my main priority in my police and crime plan – is going to be diminished. That is not true.

"There will be more DAROs in the force and, importantly, they will not be members of staff – they will be warranted officers. If there is a situation where a victim calls our control room, at the moment the initial response is by members of staff who do not have police warranted powers to be able to arrest offenders and take them to custody. This is an improvement and benefit to victims of domestic abuse in Warwickshire."

Panel chairman Cllr Dave Reilly (Con, Coleshill North and Water Orton) thanked Mr Twomey and added: "Clearly the panel has for some time recognised the importance of effective and efficient policing operations around domestic violence and indeed violence of all sorts.

"This is a budget proposal coming from the police and crime commissioner and, as a panel, we are aware of your petition and we are actively considering how best we can help the PCC deliver an efficient service around a fundamentally important part of the police safeguarding agenda."