AN ORGANISATION dealing with the fallout from family violence has welcomed Footscray police’s latest move to tackle the problem.
The police have launched their first family violence unit, tasked with assisting victims and cracking down on repeat offenders.
Head of the unit Sergeant Dean Waters said it was time to take a new approach to dealing with violence in the family home.
“We are building close links between us and support services and treating the issue with a strategy to reduce the number of recidivist offenders,” he said. “We don’t deal with the same sort of numbers as somewhere like Brimbank, but we can still achieve more with this dedicated response.”
Two constables will be rotated through the unit every four months, providing police with greater insight into family violence investigations.
Jacky Tucker, manager of Footscray-based Women’s Health West family violence services, welcomed the unit as a positive step.
“This will not only be used as a response unit, but it will also be a training unit as well,” she said.
“I think both Brimbank and Werribee’s units have demonstrated the effectiveness of this approach to what is such a major component of police work.”
Police attended more than 40,000 incidents of family violence in Victoria last year, up from 29,648 in 2006-07.
Women’s Health West has experienced a 63per cent rise in police referrals in the past 12 months, placing a huge amount of pressure on the under-resourced service.
But Ms Tucker is pleased the message is getting out that family violence is unacceptable and says all incidents should be reported to police.
