Source · IOPC Learning Case

Officers investigate alleged domestic assault while another officer attempted to interfere with the investigation – Sussex Police, August 2019

Sussex Police Ref: 2019/125094 Recommended 19 Jan 2022 Response due 16 Mar 2022

Custody and detention Domestic abuse

On 13 August 2019 a member of the public, who was a domestic worker, called Sussex Police to report she had been assaulted by her employer who she also lived with. When officers arrived, an off-duty police officer, who was also a family friend, was already at the scene having been asked to attend by the employer. On arrival, the attending officers spoke to both parties and the off-duty officer. They made the decision not to arrest the employer and …

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Recommendations

1 total

Recommendation 1

The IOPC recommends that Sussex Police should revise their domestic abuse training package to ensure it reflects force policy. This states that officers should consider how people live as a family unit when assessing whether a person or persons are victims of domestic abuse. Do you accept the recommendation? Yes

Addressed to: Sussex Police

Linked bodies: Sussex Police

Accepted

Force response

Accepted action: Force domestic abuse policy has been updated to reflect the IOPC findings and DA training has been amended to encourage officers to consider non-traditional familial set ups when considering if DA may be a factor. An intranet briefing was produced to encourage officers to reflect on these findings, update themselves on the new force policy and consider the context of each relationship when attending incidents to ensure no domestic abuse incident is missed. Our Learning and development team have reviewed their training programmes to reflect this learning and that officers need to look beyond the norm. Students now complete many activities including further reading and face to face training to ensure independent learning is consolidated and fully understood. An explanation note has been added to the online materials. The masterclass resources have been updated and utilised by the wider Learning and Development Department. Despite the recommendation only being for Sussex, L&D have worked with programme managers in Surrey and Hampshire to update face to face training sessions for all programmes. This is because these additional guidelines will benefit all officers when considering familiar relationships. In addition a 60 second learning briefing is currently being prepared for dissemination across the Force.