United Kingdom:Police commissioner pledges continued support to reduce women violence

Tim Passmore, Suffolk's Police and Crime Commissioner. Picture: Courtesy of Suffolk PCC.

The Suffolk police and crime commissioner has vowed to continue helping to reduce violence against women and girls.

Speaking today on International Women’s Day, Tim Passmore affirmed that he and the county’s constabulary are fully committed to supporting victims and ensuring perpetrators are brought to justice.

“Sexual and domestic violence remains a major problem across the country,” said Mr Passmore. “Violence against women and girls is happening right here in Suffolk and in my commissioning role I have a responsibility to support victims and ensure they have the support they need to rebuild their lives.

“Sadly, some crimes have a disproportionate impact on women and girls, including sexual violence, domestic abuse, human trafficking, honour-based abuse, forced marriage and female genital mutilation. Their catastrophic impact on women of all ages is undeniable and children are often caught up in the trauma, potentially causing a life-long impact.

“Since becoming PCC in 2012, I have allocated over £2m to support victims of serious sexual offences and domestic abuse. We funded an extensive training programme for over 800 frontline officers to help them understand and identify domestic abuse and coercive controlling behaviour.

“We have also invested in body worn video cameras for frontline officers, which has proved extremely valuable when responding to domestic abuse emergency calls as the evidence secured at the scene captures context, comments, emotions and injuries.

The theme of this year’s worldwide commemoration for the women’s rights movement is #PressForProgress, encouraging people to address the crimes affecting women and girls the most.

Mr Passmore added: “International Women’s Day is a great opportunity to take stock of where we’ve been, where we’re going and what we need to do to #PressforProgress in the future.”