Thousands of people are at risk of harm or even murder because of widespread police failure in England and Wales to tackle domestic abuse, a report says.
HM Inspectorate of Constabulary said there was an alarming and ineffective response by many police forces.
And it accused them of unacceptable weaknesses despite domestic abuse being linked to 8% of crimes and police chiefs saying abuse was a priority.
Police chiefs said they were working to improve their response despite cuts.
'Serial offenders'
HMIC said police received more than one million calls a year relating to domestic abuse and almost 58,000 victims - the vast majority of them women - were at risk of serious harm or murder. It said three women a fortnight were being killed by a partner or former partner and a third of all assaults recorded by the police related to domestic violence.
In an exceptionally critical report, the HMIC said that chief officers must recognise that domestic abuse constituted a major problem that demanded comparable resources and focus to those devoted to tackling other high volume crimes such as burglary.
The report said only eight out of 43 forces were responding well to domestic abuse and it specifically criticised four others: Greater Manchester, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Gloucestershire. Bedfordshire had only one dedicated domestic violence officer, said inspectors.
HMIC says it is concerned by poor attitudes that some police officers show towards victims of abuse
HMIC said that victims faced a "lottery" in how they would be treated.
Sixteen of the 43 forces had no systems in place to prioritise calls from known victims or to prepare emergency response officers.
When it inspected 600 domestic assault files it found that half did not include pictures of injuries - a standard piece of evidence for a prosecution.
The failing to target serial offenders in a way that they would if dealing with a prolific burglar. It blamed many of the failings on the culture and ethos of individual officers.
"HMIC is concerned about the poor attitudes that some police officers display towards victims of domestic abuse," said the report.
"Victims told us that they were frequently not taken seriously, that they felt judged and that some officers demonstrated a considerable lack of empathy and understanding."
HM Inspector of Constabulary Zoe Billingham said: "We believe the findings of this report should be a wake-up call for the police service. Domestic abuse must no longer be the poor relation to other policing activity."
Home Secretary Theresa May, who commissioned the report, said it made depressing reading and the findings deeply worrying.
"HMIC makes a series of recommendations to forces and I expect them all to be implemented quickly," she said.
"I am establishing a new national oversight group, which I will chair myself. I expect chief constables to respond to this report by changing radically their response to domestic violence."
'Second-class crime'
Assistant Chief Constable Louisa Rolfe of the Association of Chief Police Officers said the issue "is not an easy one" for police to deal with.
"We grapple with a staggering level of acceptance of domestic abuse in our communities and a genuine reluctance from victims to come forward in the face of a very traditional justice system.
"We are also trying to improve our response in a time of continuing budget cuts and austerity."
Diana Barran, chief executive of charity Co-ordinated Action Against Domestic Abuse (CAADA), said Police and Crime Commissioners and Chief Constables had a responsibility to tackle the problem.
"We look forward to seeing the leadership, accountability and transparency that can move domestic violence from being treated as a second-class crime by the police to one where victims get the response that they deserve."
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said Labour had been warning that action against domestic abuse has "deteriorated" for three years, branding the situation a "national scandal".
"We need answers from the home secretary about why things are getting so much worse and what she will do to improve action by the police, prosecution and support services too," she said.
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