What we are doing to tackle violence against women and girls?

We are policing streets differently

We are using a new tracking tool for reports of crimes against women and girls and targeting neighbourhood policing resources to these locations. We want to ensure that we have a deterring presence with the aim of preventing violent, abusive or intimidating behaviours and making women and girls feel safer.

A proactive operational position has been taken with the recent training from Thames Valley Police for ‘Project Vigilant’. This will see tactical deployments across Northern Ireland of plain clothed and uniformed officers trained to identify predatory behaviour and intervene to safeguard within night time economy settings. A formal launch of this initiative will take place in October 2025. 
 

Taking a zero tolerance approach to offending

We will prioritise action in respect of those wanted for violence, intimidation or abuse against women and girls using existing and new legislation available to us to bring offenders to justice. Three years on (to end of August 2025), officers have made 5,042 arrests under new legislation (domestic abuse, stalking and non-fatal strangulation) and conducted hundreds of targeted patrols in their bid to relentlessly pursue perpetrators. They have also put in place four stalking protection orders using new legislation. 

84 arrests have been made on average each month for the domestic abuse offence, there have been an average of 19 arrests each month for the offences of stalking and threatening and abusive behaviour, with 76 arrests each month for non-fatal strangulation.

Working to design out crime

We continue to have a dedicated Design out Crime Unit who provide specialist design solutions and assessments on the security to local businesses and partner agencies to influence their specifications in order to minimise crime, disorder and anti-social behaviour. Since the launch of our action plan violence against women and girls has been specifically factored into the design processes as part of a “Safer Spaces” approach. Since 1st September 2024 until end of August 2025, the Design out Crime Unit have provided specialist support to 166 projects.
Examples include:
•    Social Housing including bespoke new homes for women at risk (Women’s Aid)
•    Locations identified as higher risk (Hot Spots)
•    Night Time Economy Locations
•    Opens Spaces
•    City Deal projects

Making our night-time economy even safer

We have joined together with licensed venues and security staff across Northern Ireland to help keep people safe while enjoying a night out. The safety codeword initiative ‘Ask for Angela’ is being rolled out to bars, clubs and other licensed businesses across Northern Ireland, with over 400 already signed up. Learn more about 'Ask for Angela'.

LEARN MORE ABOUT ASK FOR ANGELA

We are listening to the voices of our police officers and staff

We are taking positive action in response to any concerns raised about inappropriate behaviours in the workplace. Our Professional Standards Department has established a sexual misconduct review team, reviewing the last ten years of sexual misconduct allegations against police officers. We are also actively ensuring our officers and staff know how to report discriminatory or unethical behaviours via our internal reporting systems. We are telling the public when an officer has breached the standards expected or committed a criminal offence, and what action we have taken.

Ensuring our officers and staff are robustly trained

We have worked with local community groups and support services over the last year to develop specialist training packages with the voices of women and girls and their experiences at the forefront. Currently, 6,000 officers and staff have undergone revised training on domestic abuse, encompassing coercive control, as well as a year two refresher package. 
Over 3,000 have been trained to recognise and respond to stalking and non-fatal strangulation. New modules of training have also been developed and delivered in person across all policing districts for the Justice Act Offences known as “up skirting” and “down blousing”.

Active bystander training has also been rolled out across the PSNI and the new campaign ‘Power to Change’ (that has reached over three million people online) has been developed into an internal training package to ensure officers and staff are displaying behaviours in line with the code of ethics.

We are measuring our performance

We are measuring our performance in relation to crimes of violence against women and girls, via a dedicated dashboard. We are enhancing supervision of violence against women and girls investigations and reporting back to the Northern Ireland Policing Board who hold us to account against the actions and timescales set out in our plan.

We are committed to listening to women and girls

We are listening to victims more and more about their experiences with reporting and the criminal justice system. We are always seeking to work with our partners to improve victim experience and build trust.

There have been 13 ‘Walk and Talk’ events in the last year held across the province which sees neighbourhood teams meeting local women and support groups to hear first-hand their concerns to put in place measures or increase a reassuring policing presence where necessary.
 

We are working with our partners

We are working with White Ribbon NI to develop a training package which focuses on enabling the calling out of behaviours that are inappropriate. We have delivered a number of in person workshops with officers and staff and are moving this into an online platform to make sure that this is shared as widely as possible. 

Sadly there are a number of rape myths which need to be dispelled – we are working closely with NEXUS to deliver training to 4,000 officers that will address rape myths, how they may present when victims are disclosing trauma and how we can best present their evidence in court. 

We are also in the process of developing joint training with Women’s Aid to ensure that the provisions within disclosure schemes are more easily understood and applied to better support victims/ potential victims who are seeking information about their partners. This will highlight the lowering of the current threshold from serious harm to harm.

Making safe spaces for women and girls

We are working with our partners on safeguarding initiatives that give local people the tools to support victims in getting the help they need.

Ask for Ani is a codeword scheme for domestic abuse victims that is available in pharmacies and job centres across Northern Ireland.

All Police Stations are designated ONUS Safe Places. The Safe Place Map on the Onus website shows show all the participating safe places in Northern Ireland. We will be working with communities to promote the further roll out of ONUS across all policing districts.

Safe Place organisations:

• Support the Safe Place Pledge: never to condone or stay silent about domestic violence.
• Provide a safe place for victims to confidentially access information.
• Acknowledge domestic violence is a problem that impacts on all of us as a society, and will be prepared to play our part in tackling this.

If women and girls aren’t safe at home, we want to continue to make safe spaces for them in our communities.