After several months of coordination with other institutions and ministries, on the initiative of the Minister of the Interior Sandis Ģirģens, on July 28, Cabinet of Ministers will decide on amendments to Cabinet Regulation No. 161 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 family conflict with the obligation to send it electronically to the social service of the respective municipality 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, 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-standing 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 on the merits. 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 personal data in the SOPA system in order to offer the protected person exactly the services and needs. to negotiate with the protected person in such a way as to avoid re-victimization, including that the protected person does not have to recount in detail the details of the incident that have already been told to the police officer.
Previously, within the framework of the 2017 project of The Ministry of Welfare, the Center “Marta” and the State Police, the questionnaire has been voluntary, but the inclusion of the questionnaire 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), the orphan's court (in case of threat of harm to a child) and the court (in case of temporary protection against violence).
Prepared:
Beata Jonite
Adviser to the Minister of the Interior
Communication issues
Mob .: 28351588
E-mail: beata.jonite@iem.gov.lv