00:00For example, on any given day, we would have at least two to three reports per day, all right?
00:06But we have reports happening every day.
00:09What we would have recognized is that since with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic,
00:15our reports in relation to domestic violence have increased,
00:19and they have been increasing, you know, as we go forward.
00:23So we are trying our very best to combat that in terms of conducting our inquiries,
00:27conducting investigations, but more than that, sensitizing the public.
00:31Officer Mills is encouraging more men to speak out against domestic violence inflicted on them by women.
00:39We are also trying to get our men to speak out a bit more and to come out and, you know,
00:44because we know that men are also victims of abuse.
00:47But we have recognized that there's sort of a taboo in relation to men coming out and saying,
00:53listen, I am or I have been a victim of domestic violence.
00:56You know, they are fearful of being laughed at and ridiculed,
00:59and so they tend to withdraw and not make, you know, not report,
01:03and they tend to continue living in that kind of pain.
01:05The Children's Authority collaborates closely with the Special Victims Department
01:09when called upon to provide support.
01:12When the children are in spaces that experience gender-based violence,
01:16it affects their development and how they grow up and, you know, how they move through their lives.
01:22So Children's Authority, we would work with them,
01:25and when those persons are removed, children are removed from those spaces, we step in.
01:30And, of course, children are only removed when it's the last resort.
01:34Meantime, Officer Mills is issuing words of caution to some citizens
01:39who are bent on breaking protection orders issued by the court.
01:42This comes on the heels of former IDA candidate, Tevin Duke,
01:47who was jailed on Wednesday for breaching three protection orders.
01:51All right, so a protection order is actually a court order,
01:54meaning it's a direct instruction of the court.
01:58No citizen has permission or the right to break or breach a directive of the court.
02:03And hence the reason if a male or female would have tried to
02:07or would have broken a protection order, that is a criminal offense.
02:09It's arrest one time, arrest forthwith, all right?
02:13So I would admonish our men out there,
02:15if, you know, God forbid that a protection order is served on you,
02:20please, you know, listen and understand that
02:23you cannot breach the grounds of a protection order,
02:26you cannot breach a protection order,
02:28because breach of protection order will result in you being arrested
02:31and taken before the court.
02:32Elizabeth Williams, TV6 News.
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