As studies surface that victims lack confidence in the police, officers are being trained to deal with such abuse. Sarah Carabott sought to find out what are the challenges service providers face on a daily basis.
Switching from filing reports of lost wallets, theft and noisy neighbours to ones for domestic violence – the second most reported crime after robberies – is no easy task for officers at police stations, according to Sylvana Briffa, from the vice squad.
“It is challenging for officers investigating a traffic accident who are suddenly faced with a report of sexual abuse followed by another about noise disturbance. They are continuously shifting from one case to another,” Ms Briffa said.
Both Ms Briffa and Joseph Busuttil are themselves former front-liners and have first-hand experience of what it means to be a victim’s first point of reference.
Ms Briffa noted there was ongoing in-service training on how to deal with domestic violence cases and what charges to issue. However, through new workshops launched in collaboration with the Mental Health Services Department, officers are being trained on how to better handle such cases from a psychological aspect.
This means focusing on how to speak to victims and be better able to help them when they head to the police station.
In these sessions, officers were also alerted to signs they should look out for to detect whether the people in front of them suffered from any conditions, such as bipolar disease or schizophrenia.
As to complaints by people who felt let down by the service they got at police stations, Mr Busuttil said: “If you’re a victim of domestic abuse and you’re at a police station to file a report a person may walk in at the same time to complain about his neighbour’s barking dog. For both, their case is the more important but the police officer has to prioritise.
We are not social workers. People need to be made aware that officers cannot skip this line
“At the same time, the officer receives a call that a woman is being beaten up in her own home. Which case takes priority? Is it you, safe at the police station for the time being, or the woman at home? You might feel let down while the one at home believes the police have answered her call in time.”
He acknowledged that there was always room for improvement and that the training in process was being held so that officers could be more sensitive to such cases.
Ms Briffa insisted that people who felt they were not given good service should file a complaint at the police headquarters.
“Most of the time, police officers would have done all they could,” she said, adding that, sometimes, it was down to a misunderstanding because the victim would not realise the role of the officer.
“We need to draw a distinction between the work of a social worker and that of police officers. A lot of people expect officers to help them out with everything but, in reality, when we investigate complaints we find out that the officer in question did all he could do as a police officer.”
Instead, awareness is being raised among officers about the services they could refer victims to, such as social and psychological support.
“We are not social workers. People need to be made aware that officers cannot skip this line and act as a social worker because they are not qualified as such. We can only refer people to such services,” Ms Briffa said.
What happened in those case where officers reportedly knew the perpetrator or the victim?
Mr Busuttil said that, in such cases, officers passed on the case to a colleague to avoid conflict of interest. However, if victims feared that officers at the station in their locality were acquainted with the perpetrator, they could file a report in another locality.