when your domestic violence abuser is a police officer
- Written by Ellen Reeves, Lecturer in Criminology, University of Liverpool
People experiencing domestic violence are often urged to report their abuse to police. But what if your abuser is a police officer?
Our new research, drawing on 17 interviews with victim-survivors from two studies and published in the journal Violence Against Women, examined the challenges faced by victim-survivors in this situation.
‘He knows how to make sure that there is no evidence’
Victim-survivors told us their abusers often initially used their police role to project a “safe” image. Later, however, many perpetrators were able to draw on their police training and skills in control, surveillance and investigation to abuse and entrap their partners. One interviewee said:
He is a state-funded, trained master manipulator.
Police also have access to weapons, and importantly, knowledge about how domestic violence evidence is collected. One interviewee said:
They’re doing things that they believe they can get away with or that they know they can get away with […] Police offenders are smarter than that and they’re looking for these little insidious ways to skirt the system.
One person who experienced coercive control from her police officer father-in-law said:
He knows how to make sure that there is no evidence.
‘The people coming to interview me are his colleagues’
Victim-survivors told us they faced many barriers when seeking help.
Some victim-survivors had moved away from family and friends for the perpetrator’s job and only socialised with other “police families”, leaving them isolated.
One person said her perpetrator:
used to bitch about DVs, like just how it’s that victim’s moment of 15 minutes of fame, a moment of attention.
This made some victim-survivors reluctant to report abuse.
When they did report abuse, many encountered police reluctance or refusal to take action against “one of their own”. One person said:
I tried to report his stalking to the local police station. The moment I mentioned the name, I was pretty much told to get the fuck out.
Other victim-survivors we interviewed said:
I had to report at the police station where he works, where everybody knows everybody […] So the people coming to interview me are his colleagues […] You can’t trust them, you don’t feel safe, and even the police stations nearby, it’s still regional and they still work with each other.
They just had a chat to him and he went, “No, that didn’t happen” and then that was it, he just got more and more and more empowered.
Some victim-survivors in our study felt no amount of evidence was sufficient to see the perpetrator charged or convicted. One told us:
Every time I spoke to a solicitor, they’d say, “Oh, well. You’ll have such a – you’ll have a far higher threshold to prove anything because he’s a police officer, and magistrates don’t like giving orders against police officers because they get made non-operational.”
In some cases, the police perpetrator had the victim-survivor arrested or subjected to a domestic violence intervention order. One victim-survivor recounted:
He’d wake you up all night, he’d break in, he’d destroy property, intimidation. He did do an assault but it wasn’t an assault — it didn’t leave a mark, but then he said that I had dug my fingernails into his hand and that’s what I was charged on the basis of. Minor, minor injury that I actually saw him do […] So I ended up with assault occasioning an actual bodily harm over that.
‘I can call the police now if I want and get you sectioned’
Some interviewees told us police officers can use police databases to get information (such as location) about the victim-survivor.
In one case, a fellow police officer drove the perpetrator to the victim-survivor’s “secure” location.
Police perpetrators can also draw on their knowledge and connection with broader formal institutions. One interviewee told us:
He was convincing me that I had a mental health issue. He’d get me to a point where I’d be sobbing because he’d tell me everything that was wrong with me and berate me and then say, “I can call the police now if I want and get you sectioned and you have to go to [mental health facility] for the night”.
Many interviewees expressed frustration that family violence cases where the perpetrator was a police officer are often not referred to Professional Standards Command, an internal police oversight body operating in most state and territory police forces.
Calls for genuine accountability and independence
Many victim-survivors interviewed said police perpetrators were not – in their experience – likely to be held accountable. One told us:
Police sought [an intervention order] for my protection and this was granted for 12 months. He has his weapon taken from him, then returned two weeks later.
Another said:
He didn’t get sacked, they let him resign […] and now he’s on a nice cushy pension for the rest of his life.
Another participant said her perpetrator was simply moved to another location.
Cases were often handed back and forth between different police stations, Professional Standards Command, and other independent or semi-independent police bodies. There was often no transparency in how decisions were made and little – if any – communication with the victim-survivor about the progression of their case.
Legal or professional repercussions were rare and minimal. They also often failed to stop the abuse, and allowed the perpetrator to keep their job.
Some state and territory police forces, including Victoria Police and Tasmania Police, now have specific police officer-involved domestic violence policies.
For example, Professional Standards Command in Victoria has a Sexual Offences and Family Violence Unit to investigate allegations that involve Victoria Police employees accused of family violence, sexual assault, serious sexual harassment and predatory behaviour.
Victim-survivors welcomed this but expressed concern these new dedicated teams may remain vulnerable to the “boy’s club mentality” and information leaks.
Ultimately, broader police responses to gender-based violence cannot improve while a problematic police culture persists.
The National Sexual Assault, Family and Domestic Violence Counselling Line – 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) – is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for any Australian who has experienced, or is at risk of, family and domestic violence and/or sexual assault.
Authors: Ellen Reeves, Lecturer in Criminology, University of Liverpool
