Police perpetrated domestic abuse - handling review

The Centre for Women's Justice super-complaint submitted in 2020, raised concerns that police forces were not responding appropriately to cases of domestic abuse involving police officers or police staff. Following a joint investigation and report in 2022 involving the IOPC, College of Policing and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS), we began work looking into how the police handle police perpetrated domestic abuse (PPDA).

To provide us with better insight into how forces are responding to reports of PPDA, we surveyed all police forces in England and Wales, and held follow-up discussions with six forces. We asked them how reports are identified and recorded, about initial assessment decisions and subsequent investigations. We asked for information on the training complaints handlers receive and what support is given to victim-survivors.

This work enabled us to obtain up-to-date information on the current practices in all police forces, and has led to us issuing calls to action highlighting the promising practice that we have found and also the areas still requiring improvement. We intend for these calls to action to set standards for handling complaint and conduct matters involving PPDA and are calling on police forces to use them as a checklist to consider against their processes. This will help to identify any areas for improvement that might apply to their police force.