NCJ Number
163760
Journal
Police Chief Volume: 63 Issue: 2 Dated: (February 1996) Pages: 21,23
Date Published
1996
Length
2 pages
Annotation
This article describes what the San Diego Police Department (California) did to improve its officers' response to domestic violence incidents.
Abstract
Since 1986 California has had statutorily defined mandates for police officers to ensure a proper response to family disturbances. Each agency has been charged with creating and implementing strong policies designed to protect battered women. In June 1990 the police chief of San Diego established the position of domestic violence coordinator and charged the sergeant who filled the position to examine the department's response to victims of domestic violence. The findings of a study of police officers' responses to and attitudes toward domestic violence incidents showed a serious lack of compliance with State mandates. The San Diego Police Department mounted a training program at virtually all levels of the police department. The training involved the following topics: myths and facts about who commits domestic violence, the danger to police in responding to domestic violence calls, the manipulation of police by batterers, communicating with and listening to victims, the difference between mutual violence and self-defense and how to recognize it, and the relationship between domestic violence and other crimes. The department also established its first specialized Domestic Violence Investigations Unit in August of 1992. The 19 detectives who work the cases have received extensive training in the dynamics of domestic violence. Because of San Diego's implementation of an aggressive policy of taking the batterer to jail when ever possible and its specialized followup with victims, fewer victims of domestic violence are being murdered by their batterers.