Halton police establish dedicated intimate partner violence unit

Halton police have established a unit dedicated to tackling the rising number of intimate partner violence incidents in the region.

Six officers have been assigned to the unit.

The expansion follows Halton region’s declaration of intimate partner violence as an epidemic in June 2023.

That year, Halton police’s Intimate Partner Violence Unit (IPVU) processed more than 3,500 reported incidents, resulting in 894 arrests and 2,059 criminal charges laid.

Halton police say that, on average, 80 to 100 high-risk offenders remain at large in the community at any given time, posing significant safety concerns.

In 2023, Halton police launched a one-year project that temporarily realigned internal resources to form a five-officer Offender Management Unit (OMU) within the IPVU.

Their efforts resulted in the arrest of 170 offenders and an additional 430 charges. It also led to the approval of a permanent, full-time six officer OMU team as part of the service’s 2025 operating budget.

“I am extraordinarily proud that our Intimate Partner Violence Unit has become the first in the province to expand to include a permanent, full-time Offender Management Unit,” said Deputy Chief Jeff Hill.

“We are better equipped than any time in our history to identify, monitor, and apprehend high-risk individuals who pose a clear and real threat to public safety. It also demonstrates our ongoing commitment to innovation in policing, and to building a model of IPV intervention that other jurisdictions can look to,” added Hill.

The new IPVU Offender Management Unit was officially reintroduced in April 2025.

Its mandate remains to actively locate and arrest IPV offenders, to monitor and conduct compliance checks on high-risk IPV offenders and to assist with early intervention strategies.

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