The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) says it is "determined to do more" to hold domestic abusers accountable when victims die by suicide. Assistant Commissioner Louisa Rolfe, the NPCC lead for domestic abuse, said more posthumous investigations are happening but police face serious resource limits. Rolfe added that about 20% of all crimes in most forces involve domestic abuse, making it a heavy load for officers. She said national police guidance was changed after input from families who felt police responses were often weak. "Officers too quick to assume, ‘well, it’s a suicide and therefore a case for the coroner, not an investigation to be had by policing'," Rolfe explained. Police sometimes assumed that the abuser was the primary contact, risking loss of evidence by returning phones or personal items to them. She said police were "not being sufficiently curious in speaking to family, wider family members about what might be going on. So we changed the guidance and we have seen some improvements." This came after the Guardian revealed that many women driven to suicide by domestic abuse were overlooked by police. Rolfe mentioned that police forces were urged to set up local review systems for deaths linked to abuse, similar to the Met Police’s daily review process introduced after the Stephen Port case. Rolfe pointed to the case of Kiena Dawes, who left a note on her phone saying, "Ryan Wellings killed me." Although Wellings was convicted of assault and controlling behavior and got six and a half years in prison, he was found not guilty of manslaughter. "We know from that case how difficult it can be to secure a prosecution that makes a causal link between the abuse and the death," said Rolfe. Still, she stressed, "we want to pursue more of those." She admitted resources were shrinking and the justice system had long delays, making the situation tough. "Policing has a finite resource," she said, but praised the growing focus on domestic abuse cases. Another challenge is the vast amount of digital data from smartphones, which requires more police work but with fewer resources than 20 years ago. Some families have complained that police dropped investigations after victims died by suicide. For example, no criminal case was opened after Katie Madden took her life hours after her partner told her to kill herself. Her family was told police could only review one month of messages and had to drop the probe. Rolfe said police make "tough decisions about the prioritisation of cases." Protecting living victims can sometimes take precedence. Still, she stressed, "The most serious cases we deal with are deaths, and therefore we should not be not investigating." She acknowledged poor communication with families due to heavy workloads and court delays. "A police investigator should have about 15 cases, but some now have more than double that," she said. Rolfe concluded, "We’re determined to do more. We’re seeing green shoots of improvement in our response. There’s still a huge amount more to do." Suicide and domestic violence support hotlines are available in the UK, Australia, the US, and worldwide via befrienders.org.