Monday, 25 November 2013 - 9:40am |
National News

White Ribbon Day

2 min read

Police Commissioner Peter Marshall says the sustained success of White Ribbon Day shows New Zealand as a country is waking up to the heavy toll family violence takes on our communities.

"Police enthusiastically support White Ribbon Day, an excellent initiative geared toward ending family violence in New Zealand," said Mr Marshall.

"Police are only one agency working within the Family Violence area, and success in this sector will be the result of a collective effort across a number of groups."

Mr Marshall sees the growth and success of White Ribbon Day as an indicator of society's growing intolerance to family violence.

"Family violence is not just a Police issue, but one that fundamentally affects our whole society.  The more forums there are for getting these issues out in the open the better.

"Last year Police were recording family violence investigations at the rate of approximately 240 per day - one every six minutes."

In the year ending 30th June 2013 Police investigated 89,947 family violence occurrences, of which over 60 per cent were intimate partner occurrences.

"We see increases in recorded family violence as a positive indicator of an increased awareness of and intolerance to family violence.

"What we are starting to see is New Zealanders engaging with this issue, and giving voice to the change in attitude through events such as White Ribbon.

In July 2012 ODARA (Ontario Domestic Assault Risk Analysis), an internationally recognised risk scoring tool, was introduced to NZ Police as part of the family violence situational response model.

"ODARA is used at every incident involving intimate partner violence, and that risk analysis has the capability to be used for a range of applications, including court bail hearings which would assist in managing people that are deemed to be high-risk.

"With tools like ODARA to help advocate for the safety of our victims, we can start to give them the means to take back control of their situation- and prevent possible future harm for that family." 

Mr Marshall said Police will continue their victim focused approach to preventing family violence and will continue to hold offenders to account,

All New Zealanders have the right to be safe and feel safe, he said.

 

Media inquiries should be referred to Mere Wilson, Senior Media Advisor on 04 474 8856.