c/o Garrett County State's Attorney's Office 203 South Fourth Street, Room 210 Oakland, MD 21550 TEL: 301-334-1974 FAX: 301-334-5015
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Through the project, police create and enforce an initial response policy that focuses on training, evidence collection at the scene, and the preliminary and follow-up investigations. As a result of the on-scene investigation and response by law enforcement, prosecutors will have enough evidence to prosecute domestic violence cases even if the victim does not testify or refuses to cooperate. By working together, the above agencies are able to hold the abusers accountable via aggressive prosecution. The major tool to be employed in the project will be the Supplemental Domestic Violence Form. The form will ask the officer to describe a number of elements including: the emotional and physical states of the victim and suspect, whether there is any history of domestic violence between the couple, and whether there were any protective orders in the case. Both the form and the project are modeled after a similar effort underway in the San Diego Police Department. Upon implementation of the form, San Diego has seen a 90% success rate in the prosecution of batterers and a 60% reduction in domestic violence homicides. Sheriff P.R. “Dick” Sanders explained, “We feel it is essential for our officers to have every available tool to address the problem of domestic violence. Because of the dynamics within an abusive relationship, many victims of abuse are reluctant or flat-out refuse to cooperate. Therefore, those abusers are free to continue abusing and police officers continue to respond to the same residence for the same problems. We must remember that a domestic dispute is the most dangerous call to which an officer responds. Further, morale is effected as officers become discouraged with their inability to resolve the situation. These new procedures will hopefully address this.” The three-hour training for officers will be held Friday morning, June 19th at the Garrett County Sheriff’s Office training room. State’s Attorney Lisa Thayer Welch, Assistant State’s Attorney Daryl T. Walters and the office’s investigators will spend that afternoon with representatives of the Maryland Network Against Domestic Violence (MNADV) and prosecutors from other counties who have already implemented the program. The use of the supplemental form in Garrett County will begin immediately thereafter. Welch commented that, “The program is expected to improve our ability to successfully prosecute batterers and to decrease the number of cases that are dismissed or placed on the stet docket due to lack of evidence. As this occurs, there should also be increased awareness about domestic violence in the community.”  |
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Garrett County State's Attorney's Office