New Zealand Police launch 'OnDuty Family Harm Investigation' app to respond more effectively to domestic violence call-outs

Police have developed a new app as part of their safer whānau work programme. Photo / File

Police have developed an app to help them respond more efficiently to family harm callouts.

The app, OnDuty Family Harm Investigation, was developed was part of the New Zealand Police's safer whānau work programme and has been specially tailored to address family harm incidents.

The app includes new risk measures and other behind-the-scenes "smarts".

The information officers gather at the scene on their phone helps create a frontline safety plan to focus on the safety of the victim and children for at least 72 hours after the initial attendance and to take appropriate action with the perpetrator.

Safer Whānau New Zealand Police Acting Superintendent Bronwyn Marshall said one of the best parts of the new app was the fact officers could bring up history about addresses they were being called to, which meant officers could undertake a better risk assessment.

Marshall said another positive was police no longer had to spend time writing out paper-based forms, enabling them to spend more time helping people at the scene.

"The police report we used to use is quite lengthy and extensive but now we can use the I.T solution on the phone to capture the information," Marshall said.

"We want our staff to have an eyes-wide-open approach, looking at if there's an offence there's an offence, but also looking wider at what's causing the harm and how can we help these people - so it's a wider lens than what we've had recently."

An Auckland unit was the first to be dispatched to a 5F Family Harm Investigation in Ranui - 31 minutes after the app went live just after midnight on May 24.

Data gathered on the app was generated into a report that was provided to other police work groups and to partner agencies in the family harm prevention circuit.