Six police forces would be given powers to charge domestic abuse suspects under a Labour government, the party said as it criticised a “breakdown in communication” between prosecutors and officers.
Under its recommendations, some forces would be permitted to charge domestic violence suspects where releasing them from custody could endanger the victim and where lawyers have been unable to make a charging decision in time. – A statutory duty on chief constables and chief crown prosecutors to develop new “joint justice arrangements” in every area and devise an annual “joint charging action plan” as part of efforts to improve co-operation between the two agencies
The commission concludes that there has been a “breakdown in confidence and communication” between the police and the CPS with officers and prosecutors often refusing to speak to one another. One lawyer who had been working for the CPS for more than three years said they had never spoken to a police officer, it said.Some 1.6 million victims dropped out of the process last year alone, the commission also found.