The “Broken Wings” national caravan reached Constanța, where a powerful debate between the representatives of the local institutions, local and national press, and Red Cross Constanța took place. The meeting took place in the Millenium Business Center’s conference room.
Mrs. Carmen Șerbănescu, Police Commissioner, Chief of the Department for Crime Prevention and Analysis, Mr. Stoian Constantin, Chief Police Commissioner, Police Patrol Department, and Mr. Niculescu Marius-Ovidiu, Police Deputy Head and Spokesperson for the Police Inspectorate in Constanța, participated on behalf of our local partner, the County Police Inspectorate in Constanța.
Representatives of the local police were also present: Mrs. Valentina Chiriță, Spokesperson, and Mr. Todiranu Cătălin, Head of Department of the local Police Patrol Department. The County Police Inspectorate in Constanța has a very good relation with the local police, and usually the interventions are made with two police crews, one on behalf of each of the aforementioned institutions. This interesting partnership could be explained through the redoubling of the population in Constanța during the summer season because of the heavy traffic of tourists, and the decrease in the number of police officers in the departments of the Romanian Police in the recent years.
The visual of the “Broken Wings” national campaign, Mrs. Sonia Simionov, reporter for Observator Antena 1, with whom the Association has a collaborative partnership, and who got very involved ever since the beginning in campaigns for preventive education and raising awareness that domestic violence should not remain as a family secret, was also there with us. During the discussions, Mrs. Sonia Simionov asked Mr. Stoian Constantin, Chief Police Commissioner, Police Patrol Department, a question about the rules of evidence in abuse cases, and opened the talks to solving the issues underlined at a local level.
The discussions in the debate touched upon a few sensitive issues, one of them being the lack of centers for emergency admissions despite the fact that Constanța county has a population of 769.768 inhabitants according to the National Institute of Statistics, and, currently, there is no center for the admission of the victims of domestic violence for shelter.
Another concern relates to the fact that at the level of the four legal courts in Constanța, a rise in the number of the requests regarding the issuance of a protective order was registered in 2016 but the number of admitted requests dropped, compared to 2015. This happened although, at a national level, after the entering into force of the emergency protective order that must be issued in maximum 72 hours, a great rise in both the number for submitted orders and admitted ones was recorded, and more importantly, the rate of admission for these requests rose at a national level—correlated data from the statistics collected from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Public Ministry, and the Ministry of Justice.
A possible answer could be a closer collaboration between the Police Inspectorate in Constanța, Prosecutor’s Office, and the Courts, as well as the deployment of some informational campaigns on the way in which the request for the issuance of a protective order must be filled in, and informational materials regarding the protective order within these institutions.
At the level of the county of Constanța, the “Broken Wings” national campaign was 25% deployed, until the end of July 2017, but we were assured that until the end of this campaign, all the informational materials will be posted.
After the debate, Mr. Marius Horia Tutuianu, President of Constanța County Council, assembled a meeting within which he formed a working group with the representatives of Constanța County Council, the Prefect’s Office, the Police, the Gendarmerie, the Townhall, and of Constanța General Directorate of Social Assistance and Child Protection, whom he asked to closely supervise all the cases of the victims of domestic violence.
An Action Plan, which includes the creation, in the nearest future, of a special helpline aimed at the victims of this social phenomenon, the opening of a psychological and legal counseling center, the identification of a space for the foundation of a center for emergency admissions, which will most likely be opened in the spring of 2018, and the opening of a House for workplaces for the victims of domestic violence, was developed.
Change is produced through people, and because there is an opening to understanding that this phenomenon must be treated with more care, informational campaigns, and special services, and we promised to return to Constanța in November, and we hope that then we will be able to tell you that for a part of the issues discussed yesterday, answers were found.
You can watch the event here.
The “Broken Wings” Caravan is part of the national campaign for the prevention of domestic violence with the same name, created by Necuvinte Association in partnership with the Romanian Police, and financed by Kaufland România.
More details about the “Broken Wings” national campaign here.
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