British Columbia police will receive updated training on how to improve their response to intimate partner violence.
The training is now available and has been tweaked in the past two years with the help of sector service providers, Indigenous partners, police, and others.
“The BC Society of Transition Houses was honoured to participate as a validator in the stakeholder working group that assisted in the development of the B.C. Evidence-based, Risk-focused Intimate Partner Violence Investigations Course,” said Amy FitzGerald, executive director of the B.C. Society of Transition Houses. “The consultation resulted in a fulsome literature review and a consultation process that informed this important public safety work. The work examined the current environment and important contextual issues, such as the element of coercive control in intimate partner violence and incorporated these emerging issues in its analysis and curriculum. The new risk factors and complementary curriculum inform and enhance the criminal justice response to intimate partner violence so that the needs of victims and survivors of crime are safeguarded in the public safety response.”
The course takes four to five hours to complete, and it will be added to the training for only municipal police agencies.
“Work to ensure our front-line police responders have current, trauma-informed training is essential to responding to domestic and intimate partner violence,” said Grace Lore, parliamentary secretary for gender equity. “This updated training is one of the important initiatives government has underway to better support people facing violence and end gender-based violence.”
Police must finish the free training before the end of 2022.
“This timely renewal of training materials will prepare officers to better respond to the realities of intimate partner violence today, including its disproportionate impact on Indigenous women and 2SLGBTQ+ people,” said Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth. “Ensuring that front-line officers have up-to-date information from risk assessment through to charge recommendations, will complement our ongoing work with community partners who are helping vulnerable people transition more quickly to safety and survivorship.”
