Dr Ang Jury: Women's Refuge CEO on police investigating fewer family harm cases

The Chief Executive of Women's Refuge says police haven't yet implemented a policy to withdraw from family harm callouts.

Police did 3000 fewer police investigations of family harm last month, compared to December 2023.

Dr Ang Jury says it's not entirely accurate to compare these two months, as December is often high-volume.

But she says she has been talking about the policy with the Police Commissioner.

"We've had some robust discussions about it. Obviously, I've got concerns - and it would be fair to say that the police do as well." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thousands fewer family harm cases are being investigated by police.
In March, police announced that officers would no longer have
to attend all family callouts. Well, this decision has had
an immediate impact, thousands fewer. In fact, official data shows
nearly three thousand fewer cases were investigated last month compared

(00:20):
to December last year. So I'm joined now by Women's
Refuge CEO dtr Ang Jury. Hello, dr Ang, it's.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Ange actually Andrew and Tura and thanks for having me on.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
I thank you. Was there a sign eamist? That doesn't matter? Hey?

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Is it? Sah?

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Yeah, okay, there we go. Is this happening directly as
a result of that mandatory attendance policy being removed?

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Well, I'm not entirely sure where the information has come
from and how the article in the Herald was put together.
One thing I am a little bit worried about is
the numbers that are being mentioned. There are comparing apples

(01:10):
and oranges. You know, you can't compare figures for June
it with figures for December. November is always a really
really high volume month.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
But the difference is three thousand, and that's still big
and and what is the point of that because what
we're seeing is less police turning up to family harm
incidents and that's bad for the families.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
The police haven't actually started implementing this policy yet, apart
from in two relatively small roof of concept sites. They
are still building the new system. Either that or I'm
being directly misinformed.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
Have they to be involved? The call has gone out
in March, officers will no longer have to attend all
family harm callouts. I would have thought the next process
was then to talk to interested players to come up
with a system that would then cope with that, to
make sure that agencies were involved, and I would have
thought that your agency, Women's Refuge would be involved in

(02:18):
that consultation process. So my question for you is have
you been consulted on this?

Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yes, I've been talking to the Commissioner about this policy
and we've had some robust discussions about it. I mean,
obviously I've got concerns, and it would be fair to
say probably that police does as well. But the point
remains that the volume of work that they were being

(02:44):
expected to attend under the mandatory policy, which by the way,
hasn't actually been removed. They've signaled that it's going to
be once the new triaging system is in place, So
I have sympathy for them. We can't have decent, robust

(03:09):
investigations if police have to roll up to an incident
every fifteen minutes.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
And this is true, and this is why the change
was there mooted. The question is how much impact will
they have now or even more so in the future.
And as you mentioned, they are going to go for
a triage system whereby a call center operator then you know,
here's a call from somebody in the middle of a
family harm incident and then makes a call as to

(03:38):
whether that's worthy of having a police person co along.
Now is that a good system because that's putting a
lot of pressure on call centers.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
It certainly is. And we haven't seen the risk framework,
the risk assessment framework that's been going to be used.
I mean, obviously there are really niggly worries about it,
and I think police signaled that themselves and their advice
to the to the minister.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
Well, and we'll keep we'll keep our eye on it
because the policy is in process, and we'll keep an
eye and see whether it's going to work or not.
And I thank you so much. That's doctor and Jury,
Women's refuge CEO and This is News Talks and for
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