Police admit training flaws

By ANGELA GREGORY social issues reporter

Police accept they need to do a better job of assessing whether children are at risk on domestic violence callouts.

Police attitudes to violence in the home have been criticised after reports this week on the murders of Masterton sisters Saliel Aplin and Olympia Jetson.

It was noted the police had visited the home of the girls' stepfather, Bruce Howse, 18 times over six years.

Brian Gardner, national manager of the National Network of Stopping Violence Services, said yesterday he was concerned the police did not intervene soon enough.

"Not once did police tell social workers about the girls' exposure to violence, and the police even commented that that number of domestic violence calls was not extensive or significant."

The police said there needed to be at least three calls to the same address within a year to consider it a high risk, he said.

"The girls' deaths show that this is setting the bar far too high."

Mr Gardner said men such as Howse got the wrong message when police attended call-outs but no action was taken.

"Howse was rarely held accountable for the domestic violence."

Mr Gardner said police played a vital role in keeping women and children safe from men's violence and abuse, but that wasn't being fully recognised.

"Instead, too often women and children are held responsible for keeping the peace. They are walking on egg shells to try and keep themselves safe," he said.

Mr Gardner said police spent only one day focusing on domestic violence out of an initial 18 weeks of training, and little if any in-service training addressed men's violence and abuse to women and children.

A Women's Refuge worker recently told the Herald that although police were generally helpful she had at times been startled and dismayed to hear officers comment that the women they brought in were so lippy they felt like hitting them too.

The police national manager of youth services, Steve Christian, accepted that more training was needed to raise understanding of domestic violence.

Police were already learning how to assess risks to children in domestic violence cases and report them back to Child, Youth and Family.

Mr Christian said the visits to the Aplin home were spread over six years and not all involved violence. Just one had involved the children - in 1997, when one of the girls was struck with a mop.

Under the current family violence policy, 12 of the incidents were referred to the Women's Refuge, he said.

Mr Christian said police were working nationally and at a district level to improve their risk assessments in domestic violence call-outs.

They were already seeing increased reporting of incidents and more robust actions being taken, such as charges being laid.

The Commissioner for Children, Dr Cindy Kiro, said in her report that the police did not have all the information about the extent of the violence in the house.

"They responded appropriately when they were called."

Dr Kiro said the family and the wider community had also commented very favourably on the police response and support after the murders of the children.

Women's Refuge national co-ordinator Roma Balzer said that about a decade ago the police took affirmative action on domestic violence issues - more so than other Government departments.

"They did some inspirational work with responsive communities and supported by good legislation after the introduction of the Domestic Violence Act."

But Ms Balzer said there had been a slackening-off.

"What we need is an independent agency to gather and co-ordinate domestic violence information, undertake risk assessments, identify high-risk families, monitor the practices of those in the domestic violence area and maintain an emphasis on safety for battered women, and their children, and accountability for men who choose to batter."