Fewer reports on domestic abuse

A Paisley politician says“more needs to be done”in tackling domestic abuse – as new figures reveal a four per cent drop in complaints to police.

There were 600 reports of domestic violence between April and December 2017, compared to 623 in the same period of 2016.

Councillor Mags MacLaren, SNP member for Paisley North West, voiced concern over the findings presented to the the police and fire and rescue scrutiny sub-committee.

She said:“The latest figures show a 3.7 per cent decrease in the number of these cases reported to the police.

“This report also highlighted a seven per cent drop in total crimes and offences in domestic abuse incidents.

“There have been a number of campaigns to encourage victims to come forward and it is still important that anyone who feels threatened at home comes forward.

“These figures still highlight that there is more to do to make people realise that domestic abuse is not acceptable.”

However, the report also revealed a slight rise in the number of complaints that result in a crime being recorded, up to 49.2 per cent between April and December 2017, compared with 46.4 per cent in the same period of last year.

And the detection rate for domestic offences has also gone down by almost eight per cent in the same period.