Police chiefs insist “no one should live in fear” after figures revealed reports of domestic abuse were on the rise across East Ayrshire.
Area Commander, Chief Inspector Steven Meikle, told the Kilmarnock Standard the effects of domestic abuse can be “devastating” for victims – including children.
It comes after we reported on March 4 how there has been a 4.4 per cent rise in incidents recorded by police across the region for the 2018-19 period.
Nationally, there were 60,641 incidents of domestic abuse recorded by police – a rise of 1.8 per cent on the previous year (2017-18) when there were 59,541 incidents.
In East Ayrshire, however, there were 1468 incidents compared to 1405 cases in 2017-18. A regional performance summary report for the April to December period of 2019 also revealed there had been a 17.2 per cent increase.
The stark increase has been attributed to both the rise in reports to police and new legislation which came into force in 2019, making coercive control a criminal offence.
Insp Meikle said: “Domestic abuse has devastating effects on individuals, families and children who are often victim of abusive behaviours.
“On a national scale, we attend 60,000 domestic abuse incidents every year – an average of one every nine minutes.
“There is much to do to reverse these figures and we will continue in our collaborative approach with our partners and agencies because policing alone cannot reverse them.
“No one should live in fear and we continually seek to ensure victims of this type of crime, which usually occurs indoors and is often unseen, have the confidence to come forward and report it to us, where it will be robustly investigated.
“If you are afraid of contacting us directly then please make use of third-party reporting.
“Ayrshire has many third party participating agencies including local housing associations, colleges and community centres with staff who are fully trained to help you submit a report.”
Assistant Chief Constable (ACC) Duncan Sloan added that the crime of domestic abuse was “not acceptable” and “not inevitable” and said the offence continues to affect too many people.
Responding, ACC Sloan, who is also lead for major crime and public protection, said: “I’d expect that we will see an increase in the number of crimes recorded going forward, recognising the incidence of coercive and controlling behaviours that are now criminal as a result of the Domestic Abuse Act.
“No one should live in fear. It is not acceptable, not inevitable, and we believe that by working together, we can make it stop.”
You can find you nearest third party reporting centre on Police Scotland’s website at www.scotland.police.uk
