Herts Police chief announces £3.2m funding combating domestic abuse

Hertfordshire Police’s commissioner has announced funding of £3.2m to prevent more domestic abuse offences in the county.

A significant amount of money is going towards a intervention hub serving people in Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire.

Police and Crime Commissioner for Hertfordshire David Lloyd announced the kitty on Friday (29 September), adding that his office has donated £300,000 to the cause.

Money was taken from the Community Safety and Criminal Justice budget for Hertfordshire by the commissioner.

An initial £2m for the project was allocated to the neighbouring counties from the Home Office.

Further funding for the project came from the commissioner, local authorities, including Hertfordshire County Council, and other partner organisations.

Called the Chrysalis Centre, it will act as a hub for crime intervention by working with domestic abuse perpetrators to prevent or break the cycle of their behaviour. This offending type can include spousal abuse, as well as abuse against children and parents.

Commissioner Lloyd said: “This programme is about radically reducing the number of domestic abuse victims in our county. The Chrysalis Centre will be working with perpetrators to intervene and act before any harm is done.

“The best way to reduce the number of victims is to try and ensure that the crimes don’t happen in the first place. Rather than convict more perpetrators for domestic abuse the better long-term solution is to tackle their patterns of offending.

“This principle is central to Hertfordshire Constabulary’s Prevention First strategy which is embedding policies to tackle the root causes of crime.

“My office, alongside colleagues at Bedfordshire, successfully brought millions of pounds of Government funding to our area and this latest award will ensure the project can run for at least the next two years.”

More details on the joint-centre can be found online here.

Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire’s new domestic abuse base is part of a wider £39 million project launched by the Home Office, which is contributing to 50 similar schemes across the country.

Data from the police commissioner shows that 83 per cent of male domestic abusers are repeat offenders.