ARREST is not enough when dealing with domestic violence, Ms Ann O'Dell, training director with the Domestic Violence Investigations Unit in the San Diego Police Department, told delegates.
Police officers should offer assistance and referral and take time to deal with the situation. They also needed to be trained to do so, she said. And the responsibility for a prosecution should be taken away from the abused person.
The system in San Diego, said Ms O'Dell, focused on the abuser. "In San Diego we retrained our officers. It is no longer the victim's job to make an arrest fly or to make the prosecution fly. She no longer has to make a statement. She is looked at as just another witness. We no longer allow the victim to drop charges."
Arresting an abusive partner offered no solution, said Dr John Murphy, a professor at St Cloud State University, Minnesota. A more co ordinated, cross community approach would be better, "one that goes beyond the criminal justice system".
A survey of violence in the home showed that more than three quarters of interviewees believed that, instead of arrest, services such as counselling should be offered.
One of the largest specialised domestic violence units of any major law enforcement agency in the US was set up in San Diego in 1992. Since then, said Ms O'Dell, unlawful killings related to domestic violence had dropped from 18 in 1990 to nine in 1995. In the same period reports of domestic violence increased by 60 per cent.
Training also needed to be given to police officers about early intervention.