Domestic violence offenders may be listed in on-line registry

1-21-2011 Texas:

A local lawmaker is proposing a bill that would allow a domestic violence registry for those convicted of family violence.

The registry would be similar to the sex offender registry.

You could find out online if someone has a history of domestic violence.

State representative Trey Martinez Fischer is backing the bill.

If passed, anyone who is convicted of beating their spouse, girlfriend or child at least three times would be put on this registry.

Fischer says the goal is to provide safety for anyone who may come in contact with those offenders. ..Source.. by KENS 5 State

Read More of Article...

Article Summary only...

Database considered a powerful weapon against domestic abuse

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

Read More of Article...

Article Summary only...

Seeking Solution to Violence

11-29-2008 National:

Man Hopes to Create a Registry of Domestic Abusers

William Kellibrew's memory is seared with the carnage of domestic abuse: bullets being loaded into a handgun, piercing screams, four point-blank blasts at his mother and older brother, his own voice pleading not to be killed.

Kellibrew was 10 at the time, and for years family members did not want to discuss the 1984 killings by his mother's former boyfriend. He had to deal with it on his own.

His memories flooded back last week when Tiffany Gates was stabbed to death and a former boyfriend, covered in blood, was arrested at the scene in Southeast Washington and charged with murder. Kellibrew and Gates, 33, had known each other since elementary school and were so close that they considered themselves brother and sister.

Before Gates died, she dialed feverishly for help, reaching friends, the 911 communications center and a U.S. marshal who was nearby when she said, "He is here and kicking my door in."

Friends will gather to bury Gates today. And Kellibrew plans to turn his tears and anger into action. He has organized conference calls with family members and contacted anti-violence groups proposing an abuse registry similar to those for sex offenders. Feedback so far has been positive, he said.

"It's a community tragedy," said Kellibrew, 34, a student at the University of the District of Columbia. "I'm past grieving or mourning. When my mother died when I was 10, I remember being helpless. I did not have the strength to talk. I could not speak. I said after this, 'We've got do something different.' "

An average of three women are killed each day in the United States by a husband or boyfriend, and estimates of physical abuse run as high as 3 million cases each year.

Locally, the numbers are staggering. According to the latest report of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 12,800 cases of domestic violence were reported to D.C. police in the first six months of 2007. In Maryland, almost 22,000 cases were reported in 2006. In Virginia, 51,600 people contacted domestic violence programs that year.

The cases stem from stormy relationships, with breakups and reconciliation attempts that frustrate families, prosecutors and police officers who are called in to mediate.

In the past year, women in the region have been set afire by former boyfriends, and their children have been killed by ex-husbands. A week ago, a St. Mary County's man was arrested after he allegedly broke in to his ex-girlfriend's house and killed her new boyfriend with a shovel. The three children she had with the suspect were in the house, and the woman had notified authorities of her fear that he would kill her.

"This is a public health crisis," said Kiersten Stewart, director of public policy at the Family Violence Prevention Fund. "There are going to be more Tiffanys if we don't take this as the public health crisis it is. We need to focus on preventing these situations."

Her organization was among those that advocated for the federal Violence Against Women Act. The law, initially passed in 1994, increased pretrial detentions for the accused, imposed restitution on those convicted and banned gun purchases for those with protective orders or domestic violence convictions.

Despite progress, domestic abuse is often shrugged off as a family problem. Police officers complain about repeated calls to the same locations. Relatives tire of imploring loved ones to leave abusive relationships. Manipulation and fear drive the abused back to the arms, and control, of the abuser.

Experts say combating the violence requires extensive outreach in schools -- among boys, in particular -- to drive home the point that it is unacceptable.

More typically, the focus is on punishment, not deterrence. On its Web site, the Family Violence Prevention Fund says the Violence Against Women Act "included mainly a continuation of already existing programs with few improvements, additions and funding increases."

Stewart said law enforcement should always respond vigorously to red flags, particularly when murder and suicide are threatened. Just as important, she said, is funding for therapy for youths such as Kellibrew who have witnessed domestic abuse. Preventive programs to reduce the stigma attached to domestic violence victims and to educate boys and men have received little federal funding.

Manyka Gaither, Kellibrew's sister, said she and Gates had been friends since they were 8 years old. The two women lived together for years, and they shared each other's triumphs and failures. Gates befriended the entire family.

Gates began dating Roderick A. Ridley in summer 2007, records show. They shared the apartment in the 3900 block of D Street SE, where Gates was killed.

The relationship deteriorated, and she turned to police and the courts for help after a series of incidents. She obtained a temporary protection order after Ridley allegedly threatened her life, the records show. Gates accused Ridley of kicking and punching her and striking her head with a knife in a dispute at the apartment Aug. 12. He also tried to burn her apartment, records show, and was awaiting trial on that charge.

Court records show that Ridley has a 13-year history of battery and false-imprisonment charges involving various women in the District and Maryland.

"The judicial system should not have let this man out," said Sheila Gates, Tiffany's aunt, a former D.C. police officer. "They should have seen his history of violence. She had too much life in her to be taken this way."

On the night she died, Tiffany Gates was on the phone with a U.S. marshal as Gates burst in. Although the marshal and another member of a fugitive task force searching for Ridley were near her apartment, they called for backup and waited for D.C. police to arrive before entering the building. By the time they reached her, she lay on the floor dying.

A year ago, Kellibrew told his survivor's story on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," sitting next to comedian Bill Cosby. He recounted abuse that he and his siblings witnessed and the killings before his eyes.

The killer spared Kellibrew's life but took his own that day.

Gates's death -- eerily similar to his mother's -- brought childhood horrors rushing back. Domestic violence deserves more attention, he thought.

He pulled together a conference call with friends and relatives two days after the killing to develop a plan of action. He reached out to the National Center for Victims of Crimes. At his urging, his employer, the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, is considering ways to add domestic violence to its national agenda. Kellibrew is feeling his way, trying to draw attention to the issue, even among those who are not directly affected.

"Instead of just going to the service and grieving or mourning, we have to take a proactive approach in rebuilding our lives," Kellibrew said. "We have to use our resources to manage our grief. We want to capture that energy and use it for something positive." ..News Source.. by Robert E. Pierre, Washington Post Staff Writer

Read More of Article...

Article Summary only...