The Niue Police is focused on raising more awareness on domestic violence issues in our communities for the new year.
This was confirmed by Police Chief-Timothy Wilson to BCN News.
“So this last year we developed a new work plan for domestic violence, so we have Constable Trina Kaiuha who is our domestic violence/ gender family arm lead,” he said.
Wilson said they have been able to put together activities, with white and blue ribbon walks to help raise awareness on domestic violence and violence against women and gender issues.
The Police is aiming to do more additional outreach working with partners, NGO’s and the communities to help educate people and reduce domestic violence issues.
“But we know it’s an under reported crime so just because you get a few reports in a year doesn’t mean that’s really how often that’s happening so we want to make sure that we are able to work that plan and come up with ways to work across the community to reduce domestic violence and to provide people with resources they need so there are less cause of incidents and that’s something we continue to work in for the new year,” he said.
Wilson also revealed they have just named Constable Anthony Vaá as the new Cyber Safety officer and he will be taking the lead in this area as well as a lead in transnational crime.
The Police are aware of some high school students engaging in certain unsafe practices like accepting friend requests from strangers on social media sites, sharing personal or identifying information with strangers, sending inappropriate photos of themselves to other people through social media and messaging apps and bullying using social media and messaging apps.
“This year we noticed issues especially with high schools kids who have access to phones and devices now and that might not have access to phones and devices, may not be using it in a safe manner so we want to increase the education and work with them in order to help them know what’s safe and not safe, what they should and shouldn’t do online to protect themselves”
Wilson has highlighted that one of the major issues on the island is the overuse of alcohol and is advising everyone in this new year that if you do consume alcohol to have someone sober drive you home.
He added that alcohol also contributes to domestic violence when people are angry with each other and have too much to drink they tend to have too much courage to address issues and sometimes that comes out in a violent manner. This also results in fights in the club.
“My hope is that people will enjoy their alcohol and party responsibly and reduce the amount of alcohol consumption,” he added.
The Niue Police Department currently has a total of 10 officers that includes 2 females and 8 male officers.