Here we go again, lawmakers thinking that, if they document history, somehow that is going to prevent history from repeating itself; baloney. If you are going to try to PREVENT history from repeating itself, you must use PREVENTION techniques, documenting history (as lawmakers have done with sex offenders) DOES NOT prevent future crimes! At best it makes it easier for the future prosecutor to fill out his complaint when a new crime occurs.
12-1-2009 New York:
Nostalgic photos of summer fun and happy holidays flashed on a large screen as law enforcement officers and victims' advocates watched the story of "Julie" unfold, beginning with her childhood.
Although the slide presentation was the story of one women from another state, 50 percent of women homicide victims across New York state who were 16 or older at the time of their deaths were killed by an intimate partner in 2008, according to the state Division of Criminal Justice Services and the Office of Justice Research and Performance's report on domestic homicide.
The presentation was part of a day-long domestic violence prevention and enforcement strategies conference. It drew law enforcement officials from 17 counties that participate in Operation IMPACT, New York's effort to take on violent and gun crimes upstate and on Long Island.
The glow from the screen gave the conference room at the Holiday Inn in downtown Saratoga Springs the feel of a small movie theater.
But what was on the screen was not a Hollywood movie — it was a true-life account of domestic violence for the benefit of police officers learning the importance of a new state program.
Julie was shown swimming, as a Girl Scout in a Brownie uniform, at her first communion, playing her saxophone, graduating from elementary and high school, meeting her husband and becoming a mother of three children.
Then, as if someone had suddenly changed the channel, a slide flashed on the screen that read: "I never dreamed my high school sweetheart Greg would ever abuse me."
Images of empty liquor bottles and holes punched into walls filled the screen, as well as graphic images of the effects of abuse — Julie was shown with both eyes swollen and bruised from a violent attack at the hands of her husband.
Recordings of actual phone calls from Greg to Julie while he was in jail played alongside with the slide show. He demanded she post bail for $7,500.
Statistics bolstered the scene being played out on the large screen — 22 percent of women report being abused by their partner in their lifetime; between 3.3 and 10 million children witness violence against their mothers each year; 90 percent of stalkers are men and 78 percent of stalking victims are women; and up to 50 percent of homeless women and children are fleeing domestic violence.
After repeated phone calls, which sometimes ended with Julie's husband saying, "I love you," she ultimately made the decision to pay her husband's $7,500 bail. A photo from a few days later shows Julie lying lifeless on the floor. The caption on the screen reads: "Several days later, the police found me dead."
Gasps could be heard throughout the room. "Julie," whom some watching the presentation thought had created the slide show herself, had died covered in bruises. Instead of photographs of her growing old with grandchildren by her side, there were crime scene photographs of a woman barely recognizable because of her injuries.
The slide show presentation was created as an explicit example of how years of domestic violence can lead to a domestic homicide.
Following Domestic Violence Awareness Month, which is observed annually in October, New York state's Division of Criminal Justice Services launched a new initiative to protect victims and police officers while investigating domestic incidents.
Deputy Secretary for Public Safety Denise E. O'Donnell and Amy Barasch, the executive director of the Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence, announced at a recent conference that law enforcement agencies upstate and on Long Island would have better access to information on domestic violence incidents through the creation a domestic incident report repository — giving emergency dispatchers, sheriff's deputies, police officers, prosecutors, probation and parole officers the capability to search an electronic database by incident address, victim or offender name, or document number.
"Domestic incident reports contain invaluable information about the incident," O'Donnell said, adding that the repository will remove "geographical barriers" that once hindered law enforcement agencies and prosecutors.
The repository will, for the first time, give law enforcement agencies electronic, cross-jurisdictional access to information written on domestic incident reports filed by more than 550 police departments and sheriffs' offices, outside of New York City, in 57 counties.
The Division of Criminal Justice Services and Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence plan to use approximately $1.5 million in federal American Reinvestment and Recovery Act aid to develop the repository. It is expected to be developed by the end of 2010 and operational in early 2011.
"Access to data captured on [reports] will provide a more accurate picture of the extent and nature of domestic violence," O' Donnell said in the days leading up to the conference. "Allowing law enforcement and advocates to develop policies and coordinated strategies that will turn the tide against this devastating crime in their communities."
"Although law enforcement agencies have made great strides in responding to domestic violence, the problem persists," O'Donnell said. "By providing easier and more useful access to information that is already collected, we believe law enforcement can better combat domestic violence in their jurisdictions."
Law enforcement agencies throughout upstate and Long Island respond to about 175,000 domestic incidents per year — they use domestic incident reports to document every call made, even if an arrest isn't made.
Those reports contain the names of victims, offenders and witnesses — individuals involved — and the circumstances of every call. They are used to record whether weapons were found at the location of the incident or if threats were made — information officials say can be vital in the successful prosecution of domestic violence cases, as well as victim and officer safety.
Both O'Donnell and Barasch noted the significance the repository could have in preventing horrific events from occurring.
"Ultimately, the repository is going to be a homicide prevention tool," Barasch said, adding that victims will be able to receive the responses they need to get to safety.
Jim Murphy, Saratoga County's district attorney, shared his thoughts on the repository.
"A prosecutor can sit at their desk and click on a defendant's name and see any case of domestic violence that occurred anywhere in New York state." Murphy said.
He stressed the importance of the database creating a more complete history of an offender, showing any and all prior conduct by the victim and if weapons or witnesses were present at the scene.
"We'll see all of that," Murphy said.
"Since domestic violence incidents are usually part of a longer pattern of behavior, having a full and accurate history of the relationship is essential both for police to respond properly to situations and for victims and advocates to document what has happened," Barasch said in a statement.
"Given that there are more than 550 police departments outside of New York City, having one centralized source of information to enhance collaboration across jurisdictions will go a long way to holding offenders accountable, and giving real force and effect to the laws we have on the books," she said.
Murphy said the database is real tool law enforcement agencies can use to account for criminal conduct and how it has the potential to remove the "cloak of invisibility" from offenders and expose them "for all of the prior incidents that occurred."
Murphy established a domestic violence unit in the Saratoga County District Attorney's Office upon first being elected in 1998. Attorneys in that unit concentrate on prosecuting domestic violence cases and, along with advocates in the office's crime victim unit, working with the victims.
Murphy also established and chaired Saratoga County's first Domestic Violence Task Force. Now run by Saratoga County Legal Aid, the task force meets every month and has representation from more than 20 different government agencies, including the District Attorney's Office, probation, police departments, advocacy groups, schools, not for profits and community organizations.
Compared to an electronic database, hard-copy reports were not helpful to cross-referencing or data-mining — the process of extracting patterns from information. The state's new repository will resemble the New York Police Department's.
Police officers will still file hard-copy reports and mail them to the Division of Criminal Justice Services, which will scan the documents and pull out names, addresses, incident locations and document numbers that will be verified and then compiled into a secure electronic database.
Being a secure database, only authorized users — dispatchers, police and prosecutors — will be able to search it for names, addresses and other identifying information, specific identifiers, and will see any or every domestic incident report connected with a person or location, no matter which agency filed the report, for instance, Mechanicville police will be able to see if a domestic incident report was filed in another municipality in Saratoga County, such as Stillwater. ..Source.. Elyse Ann Mickalonis
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