More than 450 domestic abuse arrests made in week

More than 450 domestic abuse suspects in the West Midlands were arrested in a week, a police force has said.

Almost 100 of those arrests, made last week, were down to a planned operation across the region which saw West Midlands Police officers carrying out targeted operations. This was alongside regular policing activity, it said, which in total saw just over 450 people detained.

Charges secured included for assault, wounding, false imprisonment, coercive control, stalking, threats to kill, and kidnap, the force said.

It added it traditionally sees an increase in domestic violence reports around this time of year.

"Keeping women and girls safe is a real priority for us and we continue to work with a number of our partners to do all we can to ensure this," said Det Insp Charlie Sparks, from the force's public protection unit.

"We have made major improvements specifically to how we support people suffering domestic abuse. This includes significant enhancements to how we handle incoming calls for service, and we now have independent domestic abuse specialists from local charities working across our 999 control rooms.

"We know unacceptable abuse happens against men too, and we're fully committed to identifying offenders."

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