Women's Resource Centre director Penny Dill has expressed concern over Police data inputting, saying women have reported protection order violations only to be told the orders are not in the Police computer system.

Ms Dill told members of the Hamilton Lions Club this week that there have been a “few occasions” where women have called Police to report violations of protection orders when the officers have said they have no record of the orders.

Protection orders are special court documents secured to help ensure a person's safety. The person asking for the protection order gets it against a specific individual deemed to be of danger to them. They are frequently used in cases of domestic violence where a victim who is being physically abused requests that the abuser keep a safe distance.

Ms Dill explained that the court requires that the parties be living separately.

She said that the Centre had seen a marked increase in clients needing and obtaining orders and that while the process was fairly straight forward in the courts, that a few times it proved almost useless as the information had not been recorded by Police.

“We have seen a large increase in clients. We have seen 247 since January,” she said. “There has been a great demand on our legal services especially since the Chena Trott murder.”

Asked of the WRC's relationship with Police, Ms Dill said that it was a good one although there were from time to time areas that needed to be tightened up.

“We have had a few instances where a protection order has been given in court but it was not in the Police computer,” she said. “ This is concerning. These can be life or death situations.”