Police given drama lessons to help spot domestic abuse

POLICE officers are to have drama lessons to improve their ability to “spot the signs” of domestic abuse.

Cleveland Police has asked Open Clasp, a women’s theatre company based in the North East, to help train officers to better identify instances of coercive or controlling behaviour.

The scheme forms part of a Home Office project, piloted by eight police forces in northern England, to build confidence among domestic violence victims and encourage more survivors to report abuse.

Charities said it was an “innovative” way to help police officers “understand the realities” of controlling behaviour.

In Cleveland, which has one of the smallest police forces in the country geographically, there have been 9,879 domestic abuse crimes recorded since the turn of the year. A team of seven experts have been appointed by chiefs to identify what improvements can be made to drive down the numbers.

Theatre organisers at Open Clasp said that they would use Rattle Snake, a critically acclaimed play, to deliver drama-based training to police officers and staff to help them pinpoint domestic abuse. Rattle Snake is based on reallife stories of women who have survived domestic violence and was written in 2015 when coercive and controlling behaviour was made a criminal offence.

MPs warned in December last year that just eight of the 43 police forces in England had provided training to officers amid fears they were ill-equipped to deal with offenders.

Barry Coppinger, Cleveland police and crime commissioner, said: “The nature of policing is changing and officers are expected to respond to increasingly complex incidents, including reports of domestic abuse and coercive control.”