Today marks the final day of the 16 days of action for White Ribbon. To show their collective support, Humberside Fire and Rescue, Humberside Police, Yorkshire Ambulance Service and Hull City Council agreed to proudly support the campaign and have placed White Ribbon vinyl stickers on their vehicles.
Hull and North Lincolnshire are proud to be a White Ribbon cities, which is a national movement encouraging men to take a stand against violence against women.
Highly respected sportsmen, editors of local newspapers, Humberside policemen, MPs and Humberside Police and Crime Commissioner are just some of the ambassadors for Hull and North Lincolnshire’s White Ribbon campaign.
To mark the last day of action all three emergency services and Hull City Council met at Clough Road Fire Station to stand together and show their year-long support by proudly placing vinyl White Ribbon stickers on their emergency vehicles.
White Ribbon Ambassador, Director of Public Safety from Humberside Fire and Rescue, Keith Evans, said:
“Humberside Fire and Rescue Service has been privileged to support the White Ribbon City campaign over the last 16 days. Staff have shown their support for action against domestic violence by wearing white ribbons and displaying them on their fleet of fire engines across Hull. The Service will continue to fully support all of our partner agencies in their efforts to end violence against women.”
Ambassador for Humberside Police, Chief Superintendent Scott Young, was equally proud to support the campaign:
“Most men are not violent towards women, but many ignore the problem, or see it as something which doesn’t have anything to do with them. We need to join women and women’s organisations in taking action to end the problem.
“Placing the white ribbon vinyls on our police vehicles is a way of proudly supporting White Ribbon. Each vinyl issued reinforces the message we shall never commit, condone or remain silent about men’s violence against women.”
Between July 2014 and June 2015, within the Humberside Police force area there were 7193 female victims and 1312 male victims of domestic abuse. In the same time frame there were 7164 male suspects and 1326 female suspects of domestic abuse. it is clear from these figures that the larger majority of perpetrators are men, whilst a similar percentage of victims are female.
In Hull alone between 1 April 2014 and 31 March 2015 Humberside Police attended 6091 domestic incidents, which equates to 17 incidents per day.
We know domestic abuse is under reported, with Humberside Police working on the basis the total calls for service last year (15,749) should have been four times that sum (62,996 domestic abuse incidents).
If anyone would like further details on White Ribbon, please visit White Ribbon Hull website www.WhiteRibbonHull.co.uk or the national website whiteribboncampaign.co.uk
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If you suspect a loved one, neighbour, colleague or friend is suffering in silence, you can report your suspicions anonymously to Humberside Police on 101, or 999 in an emergency. They will deal with each case thoroughly and sensitively.