The Queen hears about Avon and Somerset Police's approach to tackling domestic abuse

Arriving at the headquarters, The Queen was met by Chief Constable Sarah Crew and Superintendent Sharon Baker, a domestic abuse survivor who set up a network to support colleagues also experiencing abuse. 

The superintendent appeared in the ITV documentary ‘Her Majesty The Queen: Behind Closed Doors’, which followed The Queen’s work in this field over the course of a year. 

During a tour of the control room, The Queen heard from a call handler with experience of dealing with domestic abuse calls. The force receive approximately 34,000 of these calls per year. Her Majesty was shown the systems used to respond to calls and Avon and Somerset Police’s vulnerable victim approach, which aims to further support victims during calls. 

Her Majesty also heard about initiatives that have been developed by Avon and Somerset Police to support victims of rape and serious sexual offences (RASSO) and domestic abuse. 

‘Bluestone’ – the organisation’s pioneering evidence-based approach to rape investigations has been rolled out nationally under the Home Office’s Operation Soteria model. The approach has transformed the way policing tackles RASSO, placing the perpetrator at the centre of investigations and better supporting victims. 

Project Bright Light brings together leading academic experts, support services and criminal justice partners to work collaboratively in a similar approach to that taken under Bluestone. 

Accompanied by Superintendent Sharon Baker, The Queen later spent time with members of Avon and Somerset Police’s support group for survivors of domestic abuse. The group was developed by Supt Baker and is one of the first of its kind to be launched in a UK police service.