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- ACT
This was published 6 years ago
ACT Policing's Detective sergeant Matt Craft co-ordinates Canberra's family violence unit
"Ever since the day I started the job, it has always been drummed into us as frontline police that family and domestic violence is one of the highest risk incidences that we can deal with, so we need to take it really seriously."
Detective sergeant Matt Craft is the expert who heads up ACT Policing's family violence unit.
Members of the ACT Policing family violence unit: Detective leading senior constable Troy Gordon, Myfanwy Manning, detective station sergeant Matt Craft, and detective sergeant Dave Crowe. Credit: Sitthixay Ditthavong
He started in the police force 28 years ago, and for the past few years has been working on family violence initiatives for Canberra.
"We have a really strong focus on no tolerance to family violence and the pro-arrest policy. But once that's been resolved, we look at how we can stop going back to the same place all the time, and look at the family to see if there are some ways we can help them through the process."
Detective station sergeant Matt Craft. Credit: Sitthixay Ditthavong
He said the challenging part of the job was seeing families devastated by violence ending up in the same position again, because of poor choices, lack of education or lack of support.
ACT Policing's family violence co-ordination team, made up of sworn and unsworn staff, review every family violence-related job, making sure support is in place for the partner or family, and that other agencies outside police are notified.
But police and community agencies can only do so much, he said.
"It's not always about locking the person up, it's about helping the family, helping the couple through this process. A lot of them do stay together, particularly if there's children involved, it gets complicated."
"It's challenging because the perpetrators have to recognise they have a problem first. You'd like to think being arrested is a bit of a giveaway, but sometimes it might take some time."
He said at the end of the day the victim's safety was paramount.
"Everything else is probably a bonus, but it's making sure the victim is supported and safe through the process."
The focus on family violence gained momentum in the ACT after a number of family-related homicides, including the horrific death of Tara Costigan, in early 2015. As Ms Costigan sat feeding her week-old baby, just a day after taking out a protection order against her ex-partner, he stormed in and killed her with an axe. Marcus Rappel has since been sentenced to a minimum 26 years in prison for the crime.
ACT Policing's family violence co-ordination unit was formed soon after.
Detective sergeant Craft said there had always been a focus on family violence with frontline police because they were the type of incidences known to escalate.
"So much comes from family violence, so many of the homicides are driven by family violence issues," detective sergeant Craft said.
"We've always treated it really seriously but in the last five to 10 years we've seen a really strong focus particularly from the government side of the house, which has helped with funding initiatives that have been really positive for victims."
Detective sergeant Craft has overseen a number of newly implemented tools to improve the way family violence cases are dealt with.
For the past three years he has been heavily involved in the creation of a scheme to have domestic violence protection orders recognised Australia-wide, not just in the state or territory in which they were created. The scheme came into effect last month.
For the ACT, an island within NSW, the previous system posed challenges for police.
"This makes it easier dealing with Queanbeyan," detective sergeant Craft said.
"It's been a really challenging initiative, because getting unified legislation around Australia is really tough.
"But I think the momentum is keeping going, and this national scheme is another example of how much momentum we're getting."
An ACT legislation change in May saw police able to take out protection orders on behalf of a victim, in particular for those who were too scared, or weren't willing to. A new tool to help assess the risk category of each offender is being rolled out.
Detective sergeant Craft has also overseen the introduction of "probably the most important" measure for ensuring justice in family violence matters, the evidence-in-chief interviews.
The measure means victims often spend less time in court, because police can use the video evidence from the interviews to extract an early guilty plea from the offender.
The interviews are created at the scene of the alleged offending and capture the emotion and often injuries on film with a small, hand-held camera. It then becomes the victim's statement to the court.
Detective sergeant Craft said it has had a big impact on magistrates.
"It has helped with the magistrate's understanding of how much of an impact this has had on the person," he said.
"The whole idea is to encourage early guilty pleas for the offenders."
Detective sergeant Craft said in the past, paper statements were used to try to convey the impact of the offending, but the video was much more effective.
"It can be a challenging process through the courts, it can be traumatic for the victim. This is why we've [introduced these tools] to help them through that process and make it a little less traumatic for them."
He said while there had been plenty done in the family violence space, there was still more needed, particularly to address the problems in migrant communities in the ACT.
"In Canberra we've got an interesting challenge because we're really multicultural. We're trying to engage with the linguistically diverse community, because we understand they bring their own issues around family violence.
"They come to a society that is probably different from what they're used to, so it's trying to get that consistent message across and encourage them to report that type of violence."
But detective sergeant Craft said regardless of background or cultural views, the police had a consistent message.
"Family violence and that type of behaviour is not tolerated in Australia or the ACT."