Victims fear police won’t respond to low-risk callouts this Christmas

Families fear police won't respond to domestic violence callouts this Christmas. Photo /123RF

• Victims’ advocates warn women may hesitate to call police, fearing they’ll be turned away.
• Police now triage calls, prioritising based on severity, but still respond to crimes.
• Women’s Refuge and Shine expect a 30% rise in support needs over the festive season.

By Rachel Helyer Donaldson of RNZ

Victims' advocates warn some women fearing for their safety this Christmas will not call the police, thinking they will be turned away.

It is the first festive period since the police stepped back from responding to low-risk calls, which are usually related to family harm or mental health.

Police say they still respond to crimes but calls are now being triaged, or prioritised, based on the 111 call.

Police national manager for family harm prevention, Inspector Natasha Allan, said the summer holidays see a lot of stress placed on families and are one of the busiest times of year for police attending family violence callouts.

“Violence is not okay. Police take family and sexual violence seriously and want all victims to be assured if they come forward, their case will be treated with sensitivity and respect.”

People should call 111 if they or someone else is in danger, she added. “If you’re unable to speak, stay silent, and follow the operator’s instructions. If you’re in danger and you cannot call 111, leave and get out of harm’s way. Your safety comes first.”

Women’s Refuge chief executive Ang Jury said calling 111 remained its main message, too. But she was concerned that “mixed messaging” caused by the police policy shift would result in women who really need assistance thinking twice about calling, she added.

“People are becoming confused by those messages and they might think that something is not serious enough [to call 111]. That worries me a little bit.”

Family violence service Shine said it was expecting a 30% rise in a need for support over the festive season, on top of already high demand, social services manager Tim Baldwin said.

“We are expecting the need for support to rise 30% over the Christmas holiday season as mums try to look after their children and reduce the impact of the other parent’s violence. They often have to leave everything behind to escape their partner and frequently arrive at our refuges with no money and very few possessions.

“This year, there were additional pressures with the impacts of the cost of living crisis, fewer foodbanks and less food grants.”

He said people in danger should call 111 and ask for the police, but if it’s unsafe to speak, they should push 55 on a mobile phone.

Meanwhile, Shine’s helpline answered more than 10,000 calls in the past year, he added. “A growing number of these were from neighbours and support people calling about someone they were worried about.”

Jury said she “wants to trust” the risk assessment system used to triage calls to 111 was robust. “I do suspect, though, that people being people, there will be mistakes. I just hope they’re not serious.”

“If you feel physically unsafe in particular, for you and your children, call 111 and make sure you know [the] call-taker knows why you’re frightened.”

Earlier this week, Ang told RNZ that Women’s Refuge was already noticing the effect of police stepping back from family harm incidents.

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