Wiltshire Police sees rise in reports of domestic abuse

The campaign, which ran during the FIFA World Cup, was aimed at tackling drink driving and raising awareness of domestic abuse support.

The campaign involved posters in pubs, officers handing out ‘yellow cards’ with drink drive deterrence messages at high footfall locations, and social media posts explaining signs of domestic abuse.

The campaign also encouraged friends and family of domestic abuse victims to recognise behaviour and to seek support.

Chief Inspector Al Lumley, who was the Silver Commander for Wiltshire Police’s operational response to the World Cup, shared his thoughts on the campaign’s effectiveness.

Ch Insp Lumley said: "This has been a successful campaign and policing operation across the World Cup period, ensuring the public could enjoy the tournament as safely as possible.

"In the lead up to and during the operation, our licensing and NPT officers worked closely with premises to ensure they had appropriate safeguarding measures and security to keep their customers safe, which has resulted in a relatively low number of football-related incidents across the period."

He also stressed the importance of increased reporting, stating hope that the surge in reports indicated more victims felt they could come forward.

The campaign focused on reducing the number of drink drive incidents, raising awareness of support available to domestic abuse victims, and encouraging victims to come forward.

The initiative, which was carried out across the eight days on which England matches were played, brought about a reduction in road-related offence logs.

In the two hours preceding and six hours following the kick-off of England matches, road-related offence logs dropped slightly from 74 to 71 compared to the equivalent period in the previous year.

Compared with the same period last year, there was a decrease in the number of drink drive charges throughout the tournament—from 40 to 37.

However, domestic abuse reports increased by 33% during the eight days on which England matches were played, in the same time frame—up from 46 to 61 logs.

Referrals for support to Wiltshire's domestic abuse service, provided by the victim support charity FearFree, also witnessed a 15.1% increase compared to the previous four weeks.

The tournament period also saw the police respond to 37 incidents directly related to the World Cup, making 10 arrests for a range of offences including assault and being drunk and disorderly.

More information on support for victims can be found on the Wiltshire Police website.

More information about the consequences of drink driving, and online reporting, can be found at wiltshire.police.uk.