Minister Of Justice And Equality Organises Bespoke Training On Domestic Abuse For RGP
Minister for Justice and Equality, Samantha Sacramento, has commissioned training on domestic abuse matters from SaveLives, a highly experienced UK wide organisation, to be delivered to Royal Gibraltar Police (RGP) officers tackling cases of domestic abuse in our community.
A joint statement from the RGP and the Government follows below:
This follows an initiative by Minister Sacramento working closely with the Commissioner of Police to ensure that the RGP’s skills and knowledge in this sensitive area, in conjunction with other key stakeholders involved in dealing with this serious social problem, are enhanced. In particular this is aimed at the policing response to victims of domestic abuse, the identification of the perpetrators of such harmful behaviour and its prevention. It will also examine safeguarding options for victims and children as well as improving communication techniques to be used by officers when interacting with victims and others affected by such incidents.
The programme SafeLives will be delivering has been developed in conjunction with the UK College of Policing with the aim of improving police response to these type of incidents.
The course will serve to address one of the recommendations contained in the recent report of Her Majesties Inspectorate of Constabularies regarding police officers’ understanding of domestic abuse issues.
Minister for Justice and Equality Samantha Sacramento MP said: “HM Government of Gibraltar is committed to vigorously tackle domestic abuse in our society. This training programme will build upon the work already undertaken by the RGP and will provide police officers and other stakeholders with the tools required to better deal with such instances, to detect and penalise offenders and to protect victims. We will continue to provide the necessary resources to eradicate this unacceptable behaviour from the community. This is part of a programme to deliver such training to all agencies to equip them to better deal with domestic abuse. To quote SafeLives - No one should live in fear. It is not acceptable, not inevitable, and together we can make it stop.”
Acting RGP Commissioner Cathal Yeats said: “We are delighted to be teaming up with Minister Sacramento and SaveLives as part of a comprehensive training schedule for police officers to deal with this issue. The RGP is keen to work hand in hand with other HM Government of Gibraltar agencies and authorities to provide guidance and education for officers to improve our overall response and to better understand this serious problem. Ultimately our aim, the aim of this collaborative effort, is to help victims of abusive relationships to be able to rebuild their lives and leave behind all the distress of the past.”
Melani Morgan, Domestic Abuse Matters Lead for SafeLives said: “We are pleased to be working with the (RGP) in their adoption of the DA Matters Cultural Change Programme for Police. The programme has been delivered to over half of the UK police services to date, and aims to help RGP deliver the best service to adult victims and children experiencing domestic abuse. The critical friend Health Check element of the programme, which the force is taking part in before the start of the training elements of the programme, helps the force to consider their policies and processes around domestic abuse and make improvements where necessary. The training of all frontline officers and staff will build on their skills and knowledge and assist them to provide a needs and risk based police response to domestic abuse.”
Caption: Minister for Justice Samantha Sacramento, Acting RGP Commissioner Cathal Yeats, Superintendent Field, Sabina Guillem and SafeLives representative Mr Peter Williams during this morning’s meeting to discuss the forthcoming SafeLives training programme on domestic abuse.
