A pioneering way of speaking to domestic abuse victims developed in Kent will be rolled out to police forces across the country.

Kent Police has been working on new ways of dealing with domestic abuse after inspectors found the force's response to this had fallen short of what was expected.

The HM Inspectorate of Constabulary published a report into the force in April, concluding it was not up to scratch when it came to how it responded to the public, how it investigated crimes, and how it managed offenders and suspects.

Whilst these areas were rated 'Inadequate', the recording of crime data was rated 'Outstanding', and four other areas 'Good'.

The report prompted senior leaders to draw up an improvement plan, the actions from which were discussed at a special meeting yesterday at Kent Police headquarters in Northfleet.

One area in particular which has been a focus of improvement since the report was published has been dealing with domestic abuse.

Last year, the force recorded 38,476 reports relating to the issue, which was 249 more than in 2020.

Inspectors concluded investigations of the crime were often delayed and of poor quality, with investigation teams not being properly resourced.

More detectives have been taken on in the force's Vulnerability Investigation Team, and another solution for this was the introduction of Rapid Video Response which allows officers to speak with victims who are not in need of urgent help via video calls.

This has been something which has been pioneered by Kent Police and will soon be rolled out to other forces.

Temporary Chief Constable Tim Smith explained how the introduction of the technology has sped up the capture of offenders.

He said: "We do everything we would do if we were sat in a room with them; it's actually in many ways a better service because a lot of those victims, for whatever reason, feel more comfortable talking to an officer over a video connection than they do with the police officer sat in a room with them.

"We see it as an alternative method, we don't see it as a replacement. It won't ever stop us attending things and responding to the public directly, but it is an enhancement of our service.

"It was an innovation from Kent and it has been circulated and briefed to all police forces now.

"It was developed and designed in Kent, it was a Kent innovation, and we're very hopeful that it will continue to offer a really good service for people."

Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Scott added: "We need to give the victims the confidence to come forward because we know that, tragically, too many people are affected by domestic abuse, too many people - particularly women - have lost their lives as a result of domestic abuse so it's absolutely critical we get the investigation of it right.

"We piloted in the east of the county a small but effective team of people who were focussing on the perpetrators and their behaviour, making sure they were sticking to their restrictive orders to protect victims.

"In the space of 18 months, they have secured 1,000 charges relating to crimes where people had been breaching their orders and putting victims at risk.

"With the reactive response with increasing availability, as well as the proactive response to deal with perpetrators, we are making sure domestic abuse victims get a better service and that's being reflected in victim satisfaction scores."

Particular attention has also been made to bolster the force's local policing teams, which includes 999 response teams, town centre, and neighbourhood officers.

By February next year 69 officers will have been posted to local policing teams.

It is predicted there will be 244 more officers by March than the same month in 2021, increasing the ratio of officers to population by 13 officers for every 100,000 people taking it to 222 officers per 100,000 residents.

'We need to give the victims the confidence to come forward because we know that, tragically, too many people are affected by domestic abuse and have lost their lives'

Mr Scott said: "In Kent, local policing is a very big function and it covers a lot of the things the public want to see action on.

"When they phone the police and it's an emergency, they want that 999 response so it's important we put more resources into it in order to meet demand.

"But they also want the proactive and they also want the visible, so those two other elements are vitally important and I'm pleased we have been able increase those functions in recent years and with the neighbourhood policing review which we are undergoing at the moment, I very much hope we will be able to increase our visibility and response in communities even further."

HM Inspectorate of Constabulary will continually look at the force's improvement and its inspectors can drop in at any time. A review into the areas of concern will take place next spring.

Mr Scott said: "We have seen an increase in our resources in our control room, domestic abuse investigations, and also into response policing as well and we needed to address those concerns.

"It's still early days, these things do take time to turn around but I have confidence in the Chief Constable, he's told me that things will improve soon."