DV: murdered woman failed by cops

Words fail me.

Police forces were urged today to become more skilled at dealing withdomestic violence after serious failings were exposed in the way officers handled the case of a woman who was stabbed to death by her husband after a long and volatile relationship.

Greater Manchester police was criticised by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) for failing to properly assess the risks faced by Katie Boardman at the hands of her husband, Brian Taylor.

In the last 16 months of her life officers dealt with 11 incidents involving the couple. But the force failed to put the incidents together and form a view of the risk to Boardman. Instead, it dealt with each call-out as an individual incident.

Kate Boardman complained 5 times to the cops about the harassment and threats she had received from her partner, Brian Taylor, only 4 days before he murdered her. And now the cops are being ‘urged’ to become more skilled. This utterly astounds me that the police have to be told to be more skilled to deal with domestic violence! Time and time and time and time again women experiencing domestic violence have been let down by grossly incompetent cops who don’t seem to give a damn.

On average, two women a week are killed by a violent partner or ex-partner. This constitutes nearly 40% of all female homicide victims.  (Povey, (ed.), 2005; Home Office, 1999; Department of Health, 2005.).

There is an entrenched misogyny within the police that reflects the dominant ideology (institutionally reactionary on all forms of oppression!!) When making her documentary (Partners in Crime – policing domestic violence) my good friend and comrade DeeDee Glass came up against an aggressive detective who told her that domestic violence was not ‘real police work’. She asked him why he thought that and he said it was a waste of resources. She then asked, ‘if I was walking down the street and a stranger broke my jaw, you’d happily arrest him and see him charged with GBH. But, ‘if my husband did it, you wouldn’t be bothered’. He readily agreed.

That was back in the eighties…have things changed much…or at all?  Womenspeak (1999) which was an internet questionnaire project organised by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Domestic Violence, Women’s Aid and Hansard Society, was to give survivors of DV a chance to put forward their views. Over 90% of the women interviewed who had come into contact with the Criminal Justice System said that they didn’t receive an adequate response. The police don’t perceive domestic violence as a serious crime and the courts do not offer adequate protection. Also the lack of legal aid is a serious obstacle for women pursuing legal recourse.

Another interesting piece of research which concentrated on the why the police are organised internally to provide a service dealing specifically with domestic violence was published in 1998. The finding of this report included different policies on domestic violence. Definitions of domestic violence differed from force to force. Line management of domestic violence officers differed and were often blurred. There was no standard model for the domestic violence officer. Forces lacked a systematic approach to the management of information relating to domestic violence incidents. Previous incidents of domestic violence not passed onto relevant officers. Training junior and senior officers should be systematic and a key role in the force’s response to domestic violence (Joyce Plotnikoff et al, Policing Domestic Violence, Home Office, 1998)

To reiterate the question, have things changed? It appears that some police forces take DV far more seriously than others. Surely there should consistent training and education. Unfortunately, there are parallels between how the cops and the judiciary perceive rape. Women constantly being let down, and disbelieved. It is an absolute scandal. But we live in a patriarchal capitalist society that blames the victim/survivor and/or minimises the crime of violence against women and this is undoubtedly reflected in the police.

I have some personal experiences of DV, I experienced it as a teenager I didn’t tell anyone for ages and it certainly didn’t cross my mind to tell the police (why I don’t know possibly because I minimised it and didn’t recognise it for what it was, a violent crime). One woman I knew well many years ago was persistently stalked by her ex. He broke into her flat one night and murdered her, based on vile misogynist controlling garbage of a justification that if he couldn’t have her nobody could.

Though I have come up against the cops when it comes to the minimising and ignoring complaints regarding violence against women, including, one example, lack of concern and a half hearted attitude in actually taking a written statement. Also being told I had nothing to ‘worry about’ regarding the threats of violence I had received from a man who was stalking my friend (her former partner). ‘How would you know, I said, you haven’t taken a statement nor investigated the complaint’!

On this occasion they eventually took the complaints seriously but it was one deeply distressing frustrating uphill struggle. I ended up refusing to leave the police station until they took my statement especially as during that week top cops were bemoaning the lack of women not going to the police when it came to reporting DV…. I mentioned that to the desk cop and said how ironic it was ‘cos here we (me and my friend) were ready to report threats of violence….and yet here we were being told to ‘leave our details and someone would get in touch with us’…. And we knew no one would therefore we had to kick up a bloody fuss just to get some basic advice, and help. But overall for the threats of violence to stop by making this misogynist responsible and accountable for his controlling behaviour, that he was committing a crime.

That’s where the agents of the state play a role but as this latest case shows they still don’t. Fortunately, I got an apology from the cops who said my complaint should have been investigated immediately, it wasn’t, I was made to feel like it didn’t matter. I asked the desk cop when would they take it seriously when ‘both (me and my friend) of us were in the morgue’? His reply was pretty much don’t be silly, it won’t come to that. My reply was ‘how the hell do you know, you haven’t investigated him’.

Reading the case about Kate Boardman makes me despondent, frustrated and utterly unbelievably angry, another woman another murder. How many more before the cops take DV seriously? How many more before society recognises domestic violence as a serious crime?