The head of the Gender-Based Violence Unit (GBVU) of the T&T Police Service (TTPS) is urging survivors to hold all abusers accountable for their actions.
Acting Superintendent Claire Guy-Alleyne said her investigators cannot move forward with charges if survivors refuse to cooperate.
In an interview with GML she said “Sometimes you have victims who will say, ‘I am just making a report for making a report sake or I am making a report so as to have something recorded at a station’. That should desist, we are in 2021, and I am asking victims to cooperate more with investigators so we can have the perpetrators taken before a court of law.”
Guy-Alleyne told the media house that in 2019 the TTPS got 959 reports of domestic violence. That number almost tripled in 2020, with 2,622 reports being made.
From those reports, only 284 abusers were arrested.
Guy-Alleyne is of the view that when more abusers are arrested and charged, it may serve as a deterrent for other abusers.
She pointed out that even if survivors do not want charges laid against their abusers, they are offered counselling to assist them in gaining the confidence to pursue justice for themselves.
The GBVU celebrates will celebrate its first anniversary on January 26.
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