By Kristina Harazim
The number of people reporting domestic violence to police has increased by 40 per cent on the Gold Coast since a dedicated police taskforce was set up in the wake of public killings.
Tara Brown and Karina Lock suffered violent deaths within 48 hours of each other last September, allegedly at the hands of their ex-partners.
Ms Brown had sought help from police on domestic-violence-related issues days before she was allegedly chased by her ex while driving, and beaten with a metal plate after her car upturned.
In January, the Gold Coast Domestic and Family Violence Task Force was established.
It is made up of nine detectives and plain clothes officers who are based in Surfers Paradise, headed by Detective Inspector Marc Hogan.
They support women and children at the domestic violence court, attend the more volatile domestic violence callouts, and review victim complaints to police.
Increased demand for new domestic violence court
Inspector Hogan said the taskforce had several aims, including making women more comfortable in coming forward and to hold perpetrators to account.
“We recognise that we’re doing things a lot better now than what we did then,” he said.
“That’s our aim — to improve and keep improving. I think in the long term we will have a greater impact, once people understand that if they want to commit offences around domestic and family violence, they’re going to be held to account.”
The Gold Coast Domestic Violence Prevention Centre (GCDVPC) was one of the local agencies the taskforce developed a more collaborative and proactive relationship with since its launch.
Top Comments
the people need assistance in courts so let's hope there is a great deal of support and representation going on. I hope the specialised team also advise regular police what to look for even in not so volatile situations. Different approaches need to be rolled out. What that poor woman suffered in the car chase was gut wrenching.
Do we know if the numbers of DV have gone up or just the reporting? Hopefully the latter.