New Leeds district commander vows to tackle 'insidious' domestic abuse - the most reported crime in the city

The new district commander of Leeds has outlined how she plans to tackle the “insidious” threat of domestic abuse and violence against women and girls.

Detective Chief Superintendent Heather Whoriskey became the new head of policing in Leeds earlier this year, just months after receiving the King’s Police Medal for her wide ranging and illustrious career.

During her 24 years serving the people of Northern Ireland and Yorkshire, DC Supt Whoriskey has gone above and beyond to support women in the force and in the community.

She helped set up and was the national lead of the Women in Serious and Organised Crime network (WISOC) and was a prominent member of the British Association of Women in Policing and the Police Superintendents’ Association, using her platform to coach and inspire the next generation of leaders.

Speaking to the Yorkshire Evening Post this week, she revealed that domestic abuse counts for over 30 per cent of call outs in the city.

She said: “I don’t think people realise the impact in terms of what people have to live through daily, so part of the role for me is reminding our officers.

“It’s about making sure we get to those calls in a timely manner so we can arrest those that need it and then provide the safeguarding and access to support services.

“Not every person who is a victim of domestic abuse is ready to go to court and that’s absolutely right for some of those individuals. So we’re just there to support them as best as we can and enable them to follow through the criminal justice route when they’re ready to.”

DC Supt Whoriskey takes on the role as the Mayor of West Yorkshire Tracy Brabin continues to make tackling violence against women and girls a key priority, having previously established a dedicated policing unit to tackling it.

The manosphere

While protecting women is a key priority, stifling the growing number of young men who are becoming radicalised online is also a preventative measure that the force is focused on.

DC Supt Whoriskey said that a number of investigations are ongoing into young men involved in inciting abuse online and that they have worked with national partners at the National Crime Agency and in counter terrorism.

She said: “Like all issues it’s not for policing to solve on our own.

“The work done through education and the online safety act all combine together. Then there’s the work our safer skills officers do in trying to educate young men on what misogyny looks like and what it can look like in terms of real world crime.”

The ever-evolving face of technology and the growth of AI means that the threats that police have to deal with are always changing, but DC Supt Whoriskey highlighted that it also brought opportunities for tackling crime.

”Within policing the opportunity is there to use some of that tooling to help with automation and tasks to make us more efficient. But I suppose it brings a new crime type as well, but we have to try and keep up the pace that criminal’s are exploiting new technology and the challenges.

“It’s just working with legislators as well to make sure we’re able to prosecute offenders engaged with those types of crimes.”