Domestic violence addressed

Liberty Lake Police Chief Brian Asmus has been concerned with the rising numbers of domestic violence incidents in his small town for the past few years. In 2008 the police responded to 36 domestic violence calls, 20 of which involved assaults. In 2011 there were 42 domestic violence calls and 31 involved assaults.

Last year Amsus organized a domestic violence symposium, which he will offer again next Saturday. He’s also putting the finishing touches on a new domestic violence response program his department will begin using in partnership with the Airway Heights Police Department and the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office. The program will also be used in Spokane Valley, which contracts with the Sheriff’s Office for law enforcement.

It’s called the Lethality Assessment Program – The Maryland Model and was launched in Maryland several years ago when the state was dealing with a high number of domestic violence homicides. “They’ve actually been able to reduce the domestic violence homicides by a great deal, by 48 percent,” Asmus said.

The Sheriff’s Office got a grant to start the program locally and Asmus said he and his department are joining in. One of the key steps of the new program is having officers make an immediate phone call to domestic violence victim advocates who will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The program is tying into resources already available through the YWCA, which has a domestic violence hotline and offers a variety of services to domestic violence victims. The goal is to get assistance to victims immediately.

The new program will only be used in cases of intimate partner violence, Asmus said. An officer must believe there is a potential danger to the victim now or in the future in order to implement the program, he said.

The assessment starts with a series of 11 yes or no questions. A yes to any of the first three questions, which deal with threats to kill, triggers an automatic referral to a victim advocate. A yes to any four of the remaining eight questions also results in a referral. A victim always has the option to refuse to participate, Asmus said. “We’ll obviously try to get them to answer the questions,” he said.

An officer also has the option to refer a victim to an advocate even if the automatic triggers aren’t reached, Asmus said. Perhaps the most important part of the new program is that the officer will call the hotline while still on scene with the victim. “We encourage the victim to get on the phone right then and there to talk to the victim advocate,” Asmus said.

Some of the services available include transportation to an emergency shelter or legal assistance. Right now officers just hand out information that includes the phone numbers of agencies that offer help. Making the call while at the scene can help interrupt the cycle where the offender returns home the next day, apologizes, promises never to do it again and the couple make up, Asmus said.

“If we can get the victim to resources sooner rather than later, the greater chance they have of getting out of the domestic violence situation.”

Liberty Lake officers have already been trained in the new program and training is ongoing in the Sheriff’s Office, Asmus said.

Detective Marty Pannell of the Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes-Domestic Violence Unit said he hopes to have the program running by the end of the month. “It is domestic violence awareness month this month,” he said. “We didn’t plan it this way.”

Pannell said 72 percent of the homicides the Sheriff’s Office responds to are domestic violence related and he hopes the new program will lower that number. “That’s the big thing is getting them the help they need right now and not waiting a day or 12 hours,” he said.

The program should also help police identify repeat offenders or abusers who have multiple victims, Pannell said. “That’s a big part of it as well,” he said.