Police have attended an incident
On average, there is a call every 30 seconds in the UK either from the address itself, concerned neighbours, worried friends, troubled colleagues or just passers-by who can hear a disturbance
This is aimed at anyone who has had a recent visit from the police regarding a domestic disturbance of some sort.
It explains what the police do about domestic abuse, how it works, and what you can expect to happen in the short and longer term.
FAQs
If police have arrested someone at your home suspected of having committed a crime against you or someone else, they will need to investigate. This will mean that they speak to everyone at the house and this may be the start of a Criminal Justice Pathway.
Help and support is available for you from police and local specialist services.
See section below on the 4 phases of the Criminal Justice Pathway
Once the police are in attendance of an incident, they have a duty to:
- Public protection and safeguarding
- Measure the risk posed to people involved
- Sign-post people to the local specialist services or relevant national helplines
- Investigating and prosecuting any criminal activity which they uncover
- Recording the details of every incident
- Dealing with suspected crime and intervening to investigate
- Issuing injunctions and protective measures if they feel someone is at risk of serious harm
When the police have attended, this can signal the end to a traumatic event. Because they may have brought some order to what was a chaotic event, you may just feel you need them to now forget it all so that your life can carry on.
- You may even feel that their visit was a traumatic experience in itself.
- You may be experiencing a real mixture of emotions about why they were there and wonder what they have done or intend to do.
- You may worry about how this will impact you, your family, your job and even your life.
These are all reasonable reactions, and they are not unusual. Remember that the primary purpose for police attendance is to maintain the safety of everyone involved.
