Extraordinary cyber bullying story calls for more female Police recruits
Extraordinary cyber bullying story calls for more female Police recruits
Police hope to inspire more young women to apply for a police career by sharing the extraordinary story of Constable Penni Eggleton.
Constable Eggleton helped a woman in her early 20s who was receiving over one hundred threatening text messages from an ex-boyfriend – a man with a history of violent behaviour towards women. Constable Eggleton’s extraordinary story features as the latest piece of street art in a New Zealand Police recruitment drive.
The new art work has been installed at Massey University in Wellington and includes the real TXT messages sent by the victim’s ex-boyfriend. Its unveiling coincides with White Ribbon month, a campaign that aims to stop violence toward women.
Constable Eggleton, who now works in the Wellington Family Violence Team, says, "Over the course of just two days, the victim received over one hundred TXTs. These ranged from being affectionate in nature, through to vicious threats. I worked through the messages and realised the immense danger the young woman was in. I created a safety plan to ensure the situation did not escalate into physical violence and got the offender locked up."
"In our team, we deal with a significant number of cases involving TXT and cyber bullying. When relationships break down it can cause a rollercoaster of psychological violence. Many young women find themselves receiving violent TXTs and they need to understand that this is a crime and can be a precursor to physical harm," she says.
Inspector Brigitte Nimmo, National Manager of Family Violence for New Zealand Police says, "There are 3,500 convictions recorded each year against men for assaults on women, although it is estimated that only 20 percent of abuse cases are reported. Our aim with this campaign is to increase awareness of what can be done to help victims of abuse, and to highlight the importance of recruiting new cops with digital literacy, who also have great communications skills and empathy for the victims they work to help."
Concerned about TXT abuse?
If you are in immediate danger or fear for your safety you should call 111.
Messages that include threats to physically hurt you are against the law. You should save these and show them to an officer at your local police station.
The following websites are also available to help: