Essex Police's domestic abuse disclosure rates hit record low before major changes

Essex Police which is now looking into Allison Pearsonʼs case showed the worst stats for warning people about risky partners (under a system called Clares Law)

The law named for a woman killed by her ex in 09 lets people check their partners past in two ways: asking about someone directly or getting info from police who think someones at risk. Essex police had to look at every case that came to them – but their numbers werent good

• Right to Know: only 6.84% of cases got shared
• Right to Ask: just 6.47% of requests got answers
• Other areas did way better; like Bedfordshire with 58.7%

The whole country saw less info-sharing lately: from 55.3% down to 42.5% in early-23‚ even though more cases came in. The number of requests went up big-time – from 7‚252 to 17‚925 in four years

Det Supt Matt Cornish who runs domestic abuse cases said they knew they had to do better; starting a big fix-up in Jan-23. “We made changes to reach more people at risk and give them what they need to decide“ he explained

They made a new team called Dart (with 20-plus officers) that started in Aug-23; its already doing much better. By mid-24 they shared info in 66.4% of cases which is way up from before – showing real change is happening

Police still need to check each case carefully though: looking at whats needed to keep people safe what info they should share and if its all fair to everyone involved