The Spe­cial Vic­tims De­part­ment (SVD) of the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) is en­cour­ag­ing the pub­lic to speak up and re­port do­mes­tic abuse.

In ob­ser­vance of Do­mes­tic Vi­o­lence Aware­ness Month, of­fi­cers were dressed pur­ple yes­ter­day when they went to east Trinidad to ed­u­cate the pub­lic about the im­por­tance of choos­ing not to stay silent.

SVD head Su­per­in­ten­dent Michelle Row­ley-Pow­der said while there has been a not­ed de­crease in re­ports of do­mes­tic vi­o­lence this year com­pared to the same pe­ri­od last year, there still needs to be a whole-of-so­ci­ety ap­proach to the is­sue.

In an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia at East Gates Mall in Trinci­ty yes­ter­day, she said: “Last year’s fig­ure to this pe­ri­od last year we had 2477 re­ports. The com­par­a­tive pe­ri­od this year is 2083 re­ports, so we have seen a slight de­crease. It is a sig­nif­i­cant de­crease, how­ev­er, we are still aim­ing for as lit­tle re­ports as pos­si­ble. We would re­al­ly like to see a greater de­crease.

“Our in­ten­tion to­day is to sen­si­tise the pub­lic. We are chat­ting. We want to meet the pub­lic one-on-one to let them know that the fight against do­mes­tic vi­o­lence doesn’t be­long to the po­lice alone. The po­lice can do so much but a lot of times when the in­for­ma­tion comes to the po­lice that the vic­tim has been abused for a long time, some­times it’s months, it may even be years. We are here to in­ter­act with the pub­lic to let them know the bat­tle be­longs to us as a so­ci­ety. We need a col­lec­tive ap­proach. Let us look out for each oth­er. Let us help each oth­er. Let us bring the in­for­ma­tion for­ward.”

Just over a week ago, 34-year-old Tara Ram­sa­roop and her one-year-old daugh­ter Ja­da Mooti­lal were mur­dered in Bar­rack­poore by Ram­sa­roop’s hus­band. Rel­a­tives blamed the po­lice for their deaths as they said they ig­nored abuse com­plaints.

On the mat­ter of of­fi­cers not re­spond­ing to do­mes­tic vi­o­lence re­ports, Row­ley-Pow­der said that should not hin­der peo­ple from mak­ing re­ports.

“When there is ne­glect of du­ty by po­lice of­fi­cers, dis­ci­pline will be im­ple­ment­ed. I don’t want that to cause per­sons to hes­i­tate from com­ing for­ward and mak­ing your re­ports. We will treat with do­mes­tic vi­o­lence mat­ters,” she said.

“If any­one comes to the sta­tion and their mat­ter is not treat­ed with, make a re­port, we will deal with it … It wouldn’t take much out of us as a so­ci­ety to make a call, it could be anony­mous.”

The SVD will take its sen­si­ti­sa­tion cam­paign across the coun­try this month.