Operation Sallus: Inside the Met police mission to protect victims of domestic violence
A.Police officers note the number plate of a car parked in the driveway as they stop outside a Victorian terraced house in east London.
They fear it may belong to a domestic abuser who has been banned from the home because he is suspected of violently attacking his partner. He was never tried for the alleged attack because the victim was not prepared to testify. But if they find him here, it will get him arrested.
When three cops knock on the front door, one of the housemates tells them the victim is at work, but the suspected abuser is also staying there. The officers make an urgent note to return that evening.
“It’s worrying that he’s here. That’s the whole point of these visits, to potentially get the window of opportunity to help,” explains Sergeant Amar Sehmby, from the Metropolitan Police’s safer neighborhoods team in Havering.
The unannounced home visit is part of a new force-wide initiative called Operation Sallus to better enforce Domestic Violence Protection Orders (DVPOs); Court orders that were often supposed to help protect victims by banning perpetrators from contacting them were underutilized.
In the past, survivors have claimed that such orders were so poorly followed that they were worth little more than the paper they were written on.
However, this operation, which was rolled out to every London borough last month following a phased roll-out, is designed to dispel this perception by taking a proactive approach by regularly checking active DVPOs in each neighbourhood.
“It’s a pretty lenient use of enforcement, but it’s kind of community-based, bringing our community officers together with victims of domestic violence,” said Andrew Wadey, the agency’s lead detective for public protection. IndependentHe was invited to join officers making a home visit last week.
“It’s an in-person visit from local officials and the goal there is hopefully to talk to the victim and determine if there are any other issues. Is the offender there, does he need any direction or signposting to support agencies and essentially just taking a really victim-centered approach to provide reassurance, reassurance and another avenue to report any violations or concerns.”
Most often, the police apply to a judge for a protection order when there is not enough evidence for a trial or when the victim is not ready to support the investigation. These are a civil order and violation may result in arrest requiring a mandatory court appearance within 24 hours. But short-term orders only last a maximum of 28 days, and breaches are a civil offense punishable only by a fine or up to two months in prison.
They will eventually be replaced by the tougher Domestic Abuse Protection Orders (DAPOs) currently being prosecuted, which carry a maximum penalty of up to five years in prison or a fine, or both.
In one case last week, which was on a list of 10 addresses to check, the offender had already breached the DVPO twice and was arrested both times.
Other victims visited by Sergeant Sehmby and two police officers include a mother who was the victim of a non-fatal strangulation at the hands of her own son, and a woman who was strangled and thrown to the ground by her partner, who had previously threatened to kill her.
At your mother’s house, no one opens the door. However, in the van, officers managed to speak to her on the phone and she told them she was safe and staying with her daughter.
PC Jake Tibbs told him: “If anything happens please call the police, obviously the order is there for your own protection. And of course we can deal with it appropriately.”
The other drowning victim was not home, but officers planned to return later that night.
Officers also visited a father protected by the order at a family home in east London after his former partner was accused of seriously injuring him in a violent attack that caused grievous bodily harm and criminal damage. Officers spent 20 minutes at the home to ensure the order was fully complied with.
They are also trained to look for signs of coercive and controlling behavior and to check in on children in the home.
The Met plans to begin using the same tactics to enforce Stalking Protection Orders and Sexual Risk Orders in the coming months.
According to the police, this strategy, together with other innovative approaches to combating violence against women and girls (VAWG), is beginning to bear fruit.
In addition to Operation Sallus, the Met uses counter-terrorism tactics to pursue the highest risk VAWG offenders through the V100 program and has deployed undercover patrols to disrupt predatory behavior in night-time hotspots as part of Project Vigilant.
New figures show arrests and charges for rape in London have more than doubled since last year, making the Met the force with the highest detection and charge rate for rape.
Arrests and charges related to domestic violence also increased by 82 percent year-on-year, while arrests and charges related to violence against women and girls increased by 71 percent.
DCS Wadey said they were “starting to see the dial really shift in terms of more people being charged”.
“And although the work isn’t done yet, there’s still a lot to do, I think this really gives us momentum, which is important. And hopefully it gives women and girls, in particular, more confidence to report,” she added.
After a difficult few years in which the organization was labeled “institutionally racist, misogynist and homophobic” in a damning report by Baroness Louise Casey in 2023, she admitted there was still “much more to be done” to rebuild trust in the organisation. This report was commissioned following the rape and murder of Sarah Everard in 2021 by an officer who used his permit card to get her into his car.
More scandals followed with the unmasking of another police officer, David Carrick, as one of Britain’s worst sex offenders in 2023 and a damning undercover BBC Panorama investigation at Charing Cross police station last year that showed officers making offensive comments and bragging about using violence.
The police chief believes Labour’s ambitious manifesto pledge to halve the VAWG in just a decade is achievable but will require a “whole system approach”.
Domestic violence charity Refuge welcomed efforts to improve the monitoring and enforcement of DVPOs in London, but called for increased use of them, adding: “Only when these orders are properly implemented will survivors be able to access the full protection of the law.”
According to the Crime Survey for England and Wales, around 3.8 million people experienced domestic violence in the year ending March 2025. By comparison, just 11,401 DVPOs were issued by March 2024, according to the latest ONS figures.
Bo Bottomley, director of policy and public affairs at Refuge, said: “One in four women in England and Wales will experience domestic violence in their lifetime, but Domestic Violence Protection Orders (DVPOs) are only used in a very small number of cases.
“Where protective orders exist, survivors tell us they are often ineffective and not properly monitored and enforced by police. Perpetrators routinely violate these orders, but police often fail to act, leaving survivors at risk of further harm.”
“We welcome efforts to improve the monitoring and enforcement of DVPOs in London, but to truly improve the safety of survivors and strengthen confidence in the police response to domestic violence, Refuge calls for increased use of DVPOs in relevant cases and a corresponding increase in criminal proceedings following breaches of orders.”
