I want to leave the world in a better place than when I arrived
It was a big surprise to me that I became a police officer, let alone my family.
There are a lot of misconceptions about domestic violence and coercive control; people just think ‘why don’t they just leave’ or ‘why do they put up with it’, but it’s far more complex than that. I wanted to use and learn from my experiences to try and leave the world in a better place than when I arrived. We had thorough training from an expert for this who’d done extensive work with both adult and children victim-survivors, and perpetrators - studying behaviours, grooming cycles, trauma cycles, victim blaming, all elements that involve domestic violence. This of course can all be applied to our external policing work too when working with the public. But it’s good to make sure there’s someone to look out for our officers and staff too. My passion is really looking out for my colleagues because they’re always putting themselves on the line, and they deserved to be looked after too.
I was working as the area commander’s PA when I
applied to be an officer and I am still here 14 years later, continuing to pave my path at BTP. I’m currently the Violence Against Women and Girls Co-Ordinator, but I’m also a domestic violence peer supporter for my colleagues.
Being a survivor of domestic violence and having been through all the processes with work and the law, I think
I’m in a good place to really understand and listen to those going through something similar.
NICOLA OUTEN | Inspector & Domestic Violence Peer Supporter
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