By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
SERGEANT Ian Lane doesn’t know whether family violence will ever be “solved”.
But while he’s on this earth, the officer in charge of the Casey Family Violence Unit is determined to help as many of the victims who reside in his municipality as possible.
“I think people are relying on the police to solve a lot of these problems and I don’t know whether we can solve family violence,” Sgt Lane said.
“We can deal with it, we can prosecute people, we can send them to court, but I think the problem is too big for Vic Pol to say, yes, we are going to curb family violence completely on our own.
“We can’t do it by ourselves; we’ve always needed the help of the community and other organisations as well to get this done.”
As the Journal this week finishes it’s month-long campaign to support the White Ribbon campaign, and with the annual White Ribbon Day having been held on Tuesday 25 November, Sgt Lane called for the community to take a stand against family violence.
“People need to just get involved – they need to stand up and say ’no, this is not going to happen in my street, my neighbourhood, my community’,” he said.
Sgt Lane is nearing the end of a year-long rotation as the officer in charge of the Casey Family Violence Unit based at Cranbourne Police Station.
The team consists of 10 members who focus specifically on investigating recidivist offenders – people who have committed family violence offences three or more times in the past 12 months.
As of the start of this week, the unit had made 34 family violence-related arrests this month and Sgt Lane expects that to tick over 40 by the end of November.
The 36-year police veteran says other family violence statistics in Casey are nothing short of damning.
So far this year 3700 family violence incidents in Casey have been reported to police – the highest in the state by just under 1000 incidents.
While he acknowledges how large the municipality is, that figure is a big reason why Sgt Lane gets out of bed every morning to do his job.
“Every eight hour shift we’re responding to roughly 10 family violence incidents,” he said.
“That’s a huge number and it’s a huge amount of time.
“And each one of those 10 will take anywhere between an hour and five hours to complete.
“So that’s a lot of time that the response vehicles are off the road.
“It’s just horrible. My unit deals with a percentage of those – the recidivist offenders contribute about 28-29 per cent of all of those figures that we have – but if we take that out, there’s still a huge amount of people who are committing for their first and second time.”
While family violence statistics continue to rise in Casey, Sgt Lane said it could also be seen as a positive sign that more people are willing to come forward.
And he said police were certainly reducing the “rate of increase” and having an encouraging impact on the lives of victims.
“With family violence we probably tend to get more involved with our victims then what you normally would just doing general duties, and that’s a good thing,” Sgt Lane said.
“You spend a fair bit of time with them; it’s the sitting down with them in a one-on-one and getting a detailed statement.
“And, you know, they pour out their hearts to you, they really do.”
For help or support regarding family violence, call the 24-hour Women’s Domestic Violence Crisis Service Victoria (WDVCS) on 1800 015 188 or visitwww.asksomeone.org.au.
Call triple zero if in immediate danger.
