Supports the questionnaire promised more than a year ago for the fight against violence / Article / LSM.lv

A special questionnaire will be introduced in Latvia, which police officers will have to fill in when going to calls for domestic violence. Such a questionnaire is provided for in the amendments to the regulations of the Cabinet of Ministers adopted by the government. Politicians both expressed commitment to the introduction of such a tool more than a year ago. –

The Ministry of the Interior was informed that on Tuesday, July 28, the amendments adopted by the government had been coordinated with other institutions and ministries for several months. The purpose of the changes is to include a provision on questionnaires –

a specific form, which a police officer fills in at the time of the call for a conflict in the family, with the obligation to send it electronically to the social service of the relevant local government within one working day.

Upon receipt of the information, the social service will assess the person’s needs for social services and social assistance as soon as possible and inform the person or his or her legal representative about the rights and opportunities to receive social services and social assistance.

“Domestic violence must be tackled at the root of the problem, with social services working with those involved. The police cannot perform the functions of social services, and the automatic involvement of the services will reduce the number of repeated police calls to the same households with long-term problems, ”the Minister of the Interior Sandis Ģirģens (“ KPV LV ”) told the media.

The questionnaire will encourage consistent organizations to deal with incidents of violence, offering the victim the necessary help and support, removing the “psychologist function” of police officers and the pressure to resolve the conflict immediately. In turn, the social service receives timely information on incidents of violence against service and can offer support services.

The questionnaire filled in by the police officer, which is sent to the social service, contains the minimum amount that the social worker would need to know in order to check personal data in the SOPA system. This will allow the protected person to be offered services tailored to his or her needs and to negotiate with the protected person in such a way as to avoid re-victimization, including without having to tell in detail the details of the incident that have already been told to the police officer.

Previously, in the 2017 project, the survey was voluntary. In turn, the inclusion of the questionnaire in the regulations of the Cabinet of Ministers makes this requirement binding in every case of a call. It is planned that this questionnaire will serve as a universal form for informing several institutions: both the social service (in all cases), the orphan’s court (in case of threat of harm to a child) and the court (in case of temporary protection against violence).

True, politicians already in May 2019 expressed readiness support a common questionnaire to combat domestic violence, but work on it delayed.

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