Police procedures relating to domestic abuse incidents (FOI)

Request

A

Please advise the procedure States of Jersey Police would take after being called out to an incident of domestic abuse?

B

How many incidents of domestic abuse have the States of Jersey Police been called out to, by year, in the last 3 calendar years?

C

How many of the above, B, had further action taken?

D

In addition to above, C, if no further action (investigation/charges) has been able to take place, due to lack of evidence or other, is there infrastructure in place to ensure if further abuse occurs it can be dealt with?

E

Does the victim of domestic abuse need to admit/report it themselves for further action to be taken?

Response

A

The attached redacted PDF document is the current procedure officers follow when called out to an incident of domestic abuse. Personal information has been removed in accordance with Article 25 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011. The definitions below may be of use. 

DA – domestic abuse

Nominal – name reference

OOH – out of hours

CPN – Child Protection Notification

LOD – Law Officers Department

APVA- Adolescent to Parent violence and abuse

PPU - Public Protection Unit

JDAS – Jersey Domestic Abuse Advisory Service

OIC – Officer in Charge

FME – Force Medical Examiner

ABE – Achieving Best Evidence (Video and audio recorded evidence)

Article 9 statement – Article 9 of the Criminal Justice (Evidence and Procedure) (Jersey) Law 1998 referring to admissibility of written statements as evidence

Criminal Justice (Evidence and Procedure) (Jersey) Law 1998 (jerseylaw.je) 

COP APP – College of Policing Approved Professional Practice

SMB – Senior Management Board

Domestic Abuse Procedure Dec 2020 SR_Redacted.pdf

B and C

Information relating to the years 2020 and 2021 is available on www.gov.je in response to a previous Freedom of Information request. Article 23 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied. Please see the following link:

Domestic abuse reports 2020 to 2022 (FOI)

Complete figures for 2022 are below:

D

Jersey Domestic Abuse Support will support victims and survivors of domestic and sexual abuse, regardless of age or gender, through any criminal justice process, civil proceedings or otherwise. 

Working with individuals from the point of crisis, they are able to assess the level of risk, develop a safety and support plan and offer practical and emotional support, tailoring the service to suit individual needs. 

Further information is available at:

Jersey Domestic Abuse Support (jdas.je)

E

The link below contains details of the circumstances surrounding when a domestic abuse prosecution may or may not proceed. Article 23 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has therefore been applied.

`Her Majesty’s Attorney General for Jersey Code on the decision to prosecute: Supplementary guidance domestic abuse’.pdf (gov.je)

Articles applied

Article 23 - Information accessible to applicant by other means

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it is reasonably available to the applicant, otherwise than under this Law, whether or not free of charge.

(2) A scheduled public authority that refuses an application for information on this ground must make reasonable efforts to inform the applicant where the applicant may obtain the information.

Article 25 - Personal information

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018.

(2) Information is absolutely exempt information if –

(a) it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is not the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018; and

(b) its supply to a member of the public would contravene any of the data protection principles, as defined in that Law.

3) In determining for the purposes of this Article whether the lawfulness principle in Article 8(1)(a) of the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018 would be contravened by the disclosure of information, paragraph 5(1) of Schedule 2 to that Law (legitimate interests) is to be read as if sub-paragraph (b) (which disapplies the provision where the controller is a public authority) were omitted.