After several months of coordination with other institutions and ministries, on the initiative of the Minister of the Interior Sanda Ģirģens, today, July 28, the Cabinet of Ministers adopted amendments to the Cabinet of Ministers Regulations No. 161 on “Procedures for preventing threats of violence and ensuring protection of anticipation against violence" developed by the State Police. The purpose of the amendments is to include a norm on questionnaires - a specific form that a police officer fills in at the time of a call about a conflict in the family with the obligation to send it electronically to the social service of the respective municipality within one working day. After receiving 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, 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 State Police has been successfully cooperating with social services since 2017, but a standardized model of cooperation between various institutions for the prevention of violence is needed, therefore I hope for the support of government partners for these amendments. ” says Minister of the Interior Sandis Ģirģens.
Questionnaire practice promotes a consistent organization to deal with incidents of violence by offering the victim the help and support he or she needs, removing the "psychologist function" of police and the pressure to resolve the conflict immediately. In turn, the social services receive timely information about incidents of violence against people who have not been 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 verify the personal data in the SOPA system in order to offer the protected person exactly his or her support. appropriate services and to negotiate with the protected person in such a way as to avoid re-victimization, including that the protected person does not have to tell in detail the details of the incident that have already been told to the police officer.
Previously, the survey of the Ministry of Welfare, the Center “Marta” and the State Police in the framework of the 2017 project has taken place voluntarily, but the inclusion of the survey in the regulations of the Cabinet of Ministers will make this requirement binding in every call. It is planned that this questionnaire will serve as a universal form for informing several institutions: both the social service (in all cases), Orphan's and Custody Court (in case of threat of harm to a child) and the court (in case of temporary protection against violence).
Prepared by:
Beata Jonite
Adviser to the Minister of the Interior
Communication issues
Mob .: 28351588
E-mail: beata.jonite@iem.gov.lv