KEY POINTS:
Auckland's domestic violence victim support agency wants a national register of the most violent offenders to be set up so new partners can be warned about dangerous men.
Preventing Violence in the Home director Jane Drumm told a child abuse conference in Manukau yesterday that
the safety of women and children should override the privacy of offenders.
But she also pleaded for more privacy for victims, noting that reporters took only four days to find her sister's home and place of work after reports from Britain that the sister's former husband, Malcolm John Webster, was suspected of drugging her and another former wife, who died in a car crash in Scotland.
She said women's refuges and other agencies like hers swapped information about family violence cases with police and Child, Youth and Family. Her agency received 125 notifications a week from police.
But when offenders moved to a new area, they were not known to the police there until they committed more offences.
"All too often the perpetrator of violence has privacy on their side," Ms Drumm said.
"Once a violent man leaves a partner it doesn't necessarily mean the violence will end. Many move on to find new partners to abuse.
"That is why risk-related or managed information about specific abusers needs to be shared on some form of a high-risk violent offenders register by the police."
She said the register wouldn't need to include everyone convicted of domestic violence, but it should contain "a few thousand" names.
"There is a hell of a lot of violence that never comes to the attention of the police. With some things, you have to be responsible and take a proactive approach.
"It's not about hassling these guys. It's about Government organisations taking responsibility for ensuring that their opportunities for reoffending are limited. There is a duty of care, a duty to warn.
"It's the sort of thing where a local police officer might go and visit [a new partner] or work out a way of handling the situation."
Privacy Commissioner Marie Shroff, who also spoke at the conference, was cautious about the idea but said: "If there was a clear benefit, then obviously we would have to consider it."
The police's Auckland family violence co-ordinator, Senior Sergeant Lynda Hayward, said family violence offenders were already flagged on the police computer system, and family violence co-ordinators spoke to one another when they knew an offender was moving to another town.
But the field crime manager for the Wellington Criminal Investigation Bureau, Detective Inspector Shane Cotter, supported more monitoring.
He wanted the CIB to investigate domestic violence before it led to more serious crimes.
"Fifty per cent of homicides are family violence-related."
