Police in Fife have held a groundbreaking Facebook session in an effort to reach out to people suffering from domestic abuse.
The private messaging service on the division’s social media page was activated during two hour-long sessions on Tuesday.
Members of the domestic abuse investigation unit, based at police HQ in Glenrothes, offered help and advice.
Officers urged anyone who feared they might be experiencing domestic abuse, stalking or harassing behaviour to make contact for confidential support.
All chat logs from the session were deleted straight afterwards and no official records were taken.
Detective Inspector Hannah Morrison, of the unit, said her team hoped the sessions would provide a more comfortable environment for victims than more official routes.
She said: “These interactive sessions have been done elsewhere in Scotland but this is the first time we’ve tried something like this in Fife.
“Everybody is on social media these days and it may be an easy means or a channel for a lot of victims out there to get in touch with the police.
“It’s something that they’re more comfortable with rather than picking up a phone or trying to do a face to face chat.”
She said the idea of having two sessions was to give people another chance to come forward when the abuser was not in the house, or there were no other distractions.
“We’re looking at giving them the opportunity to take that and make that first contact or find out a wee bit more,” she said.
“They may even be concerned about somebody else or indeed, it might be a perpetrator themselves who is asking where they can get some help to try and change.”
DI Morrison added: “We understand that sometimes it’s taken out of victim’s hands when it’s officially reported and the police become involved.
“They might not be 100% ready to make full disclosures about what has been happening but we want to make sure they know that there is somebody there to help them.
“If they’re not in a position to talk about it then we can wait until they are. We want to make sure that we can offer them other support outwith the police with agencies such as Women’s Aid who can also offer support and keep them in a safe place.”
The official event page reached 4,400 people across the Kingdom with 69 individuals saying they wanted to take part. Of those 69, 76% were woman and 24% were men.
The top five locations for participants were all in Fife with 14.3% based in Dunfermline and 12.9% in Kirkcaldy. Another 11.4% were from the Glenrothes area while 3.91% were in Leven.
Pre-event messages, advertising the sessions, reached a total of 32,454 people.
