FOI 532/25

PREVIOUS REQUEST

 

Freedom of Information Request 324/25

1. How many police officers are employed in the force at this time? Please can this be separated by gender?
2. Of those police officers, how many have undertaken training in spotting signs of domestic abuse?
3. When called out to an unexplained death/suspected suicide, how many times have the attending officers been those trained in spotting domestic abuse?
4. How many times have domestic abuse specialists been called on to give officers advice regarding suspected suicides in the last 10 years? Please can this be separated by years?
5.  When attending a suspected suicide what are the factors considered before suicide is confirmed?
6. How do officers determine if domestic violence was involved?
7. If the partner says there were mental health problems, are any other family members or friends spoken to confirm there was no abuse?
8. How many suicides have there been, separated by year, gender and the evidence used to determine suicide?
9. How many suicides influenced by domestic violence have there been, separated by year, gender and the evidence to determine this?

 

CLARIFICATION 27/02/2025

 

For Q8+9 please could I have the data for the last 10 years, and re evidence could you tell me if suicide was determined after speaking to the partner and if there were any other factors involved?

 

CLARIFICATION 13/03/2025

 

Applicant is happy to remove question 3 and question 4.

 

PREVIOUS RESPONSE

 

We have consulted with our Human Resources department (HR), Learning & Development Unit and our Public Protection department who have supplied the following information regarding your request.

 

Question 1

 

Gender	Total
Female	1320
Male	2185
Total	3505

 

Please note, these figures are from the 28/02/2025.

Question 2

 

2777 officer have completed class-based training, and 5100 officers have completed online training.

 

Please note, officers may complete and refresh training over time however this figure is difficult to retrieve as it would require manually interrogating each individual training record.

 

Question 5

 

It is the coroner who will make a decision on the cause of death. All apparent suicides are treated as suspicious deaths in the first instance until all facts are established. Attending officers will carry out a full investigation at the scene, engaging the relevant investigative officers and crime scene investigators, to gather all available evidence, both material and forensic along with statements from family members and any witnesses, providing relevant background information. This evidence, information and all relevant material is then presented to the coroner.

 

Question 6

 

Officers will determine if domestic violence was involved through research of all available Police systems, speaking with family members, friends and neighbours They will further apply professional curiosity and an investigative the mindset to test explanations. Furthermore, they will conduct a review of any multi-agency involvement to establish potential disclosures.

 

Question 7

 

All relevant persons are spoken to establish the full facts of any sudden and unexplained death.

 

Question 8 & 9

 

Please see attached document entitled ‘Response data 324_25’ which answers these questions.

 

Please note, regarding the data for questions 8 & 9, we began routinely collating this data from April 2020.

To provide 10 years of data is not feasible, as it would require a manual search of all sudden deaths for the additional 6 year period, which is not achievable within the allotted time. 

 

South Wales Police is committed to providing a professional response to all Mental Health related incidents. The force employs three dedicated Mental Health Liaison Officers and a Mental Health Strategic Lead. The force has also made a significant investment in training in this area.

 

Welsh Government and key partners have invested in an all Wales 111#2 mental health call line, which can be utilised by the public and professionals. This all Wales 111#2 mental health call line is accessible 24/7, and ensures Mental Health care professionals are on hand via a dedicated professionals telephone line to give advice to officers on the best course of action in dealing with individuals in crisis. This ensures officers make the best choice for the vulnerable subject, which will include dynamic signposting and referral to the most appropriate support from Health and social care partners.

 

Domestic abuse is core police business, and we are committed to tackling this crime - from call taking and first response by officers, to the investigation and the subsequent action to protect victims.  We believe that working in partnership is essential to ensure that domestic abuse becomes everyone’s business.  We work closely with a number of statutory and voluntary sector agencies in South Wales to tackle domestic abuse and the many forms of violence

 

Operation Amddiffyn is a vulnerability related training input that was provided to all officers and staff who work in public facing roles in South Wales Police during 2024. Coercive and Controlling behaviour is one of six key themes covered, to raise awareness with our staff and enhance our response to these offences.

 

CURRENT FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST 532/25

 

Please could you tell me the following:

 

1. In the response to Q2 the figures don’t add up to the total officers currently employed in South Wales Police – could you confirm then if Q2 is a historical number of officers who have completed training which involves some kind training on domestic abuse.
2. In the table provided in Q8 and 9 please could you confirm that the column that details the number of victims and perpetrators – are these figures included in the columns of suicides? For example – in Jan 2022-Dec2022 there were 123 male suicides, and 5 victims, 41 perps, 7 both and 70 none. Does this mean the 41 perps were those who died?
3. Within this table please could you also clarify what ‘none’ means in the victim or perpetrator column?
4. Please could you also tell me if/how many current officer have completed Domestic Abuse Matters training?

 

RESPONSE

 

We have consulted with our Learning and Development Team and Public Protection Department who have provided the following information in relation to your request.

 

Question 1

 

The Force currently has 3505 police officers of which 2777 have attended classroom-based training. As indicated some or all of these officers have also completed the online College of Policing training, possibly more than once, as it may be used as a refresher or reference document when dealing with incidents, using the app on the officers’ mobile phone.

 

As stated in the original response we are unable to break this online training down further due to the time and resource implications it would take us to examine the individual training records of all the officers in the force.

 

Question 2

 

Yes, the 41 perpetrators are those who have died by suicide and are included in the total number (we always record whether the deceased was either a perpetrator or victim or both of domestic abuse).

Question 3

 

‘None’ means we have no record of the deceased being a victim or perpetrator of domestic abuse.

 

Question 4

 

As above 2777 current officers have received the face-to-face training and of the figures for the online training this only refers to current officers who have completed the training more than once, as once officers retire or leave the organisation they are no longer included in the training figures.

 

If it assists, all new student officers receive the face-to-face training in their initial student officer course which is recorded as a 24 week programme of learning, rather than an individual lesson or course and includes separate online learning.

 

As stated in the original response we are unable to break this down further due to the time and resource implications it would take us to examine the individual training records of all the officers in the force.