Coordinating a Community Response to Domestic Violence

Every year I give a speech at the Solicitor General’s annual domestic violence symposium. This is a transcript of this year’s speech (or at least, how I would like it to have gone -- I don’t always speak as perfectly as I intended).

I should note too that to envision the zip code exercise properly you should understand that those zip codes read represent almost every zip code in DeKalb County, and so by the end of the list pretty much every hand in the room is raised.

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Good morning. I have the interactive portion of the program this morning, so I need everyone to shake their arms out a little to warm them up. Okay, ready?

I’m going to read a list of zip codes. If you heard the zip code in which you live or work, I want you to raise your hand, and keep it raised until I’m done with the list.30345, 30340, 30032, 30084, 30034, 30035, 30038, 30058, 30083, 30088, 30021, 30294, 30030, 30087, 30316

Now look around.

These zip codes come from the reports written in a single day of DeKalb County Domestic Violence response. Is there anyone who doesn’t think that Domestic Violence is a problem in their community?

These communities have names too – Atlanta, Decatur, Stone Mountain, Lithonia, Clarkston, Ellenwood, Tucker…and also Dunwoody, Brookhaven, Avondale Estates, Chamblee, and Doraville. No part of DeKalb is untouched by Domestic Violence crime.

As Sherry mentioned, my name is Sergeant Marne Mercer, and I am a supervisor in the Special Victims Unit. I have been a police officer for nearly 13 years now. More importantly, however, is that January 1, 2016 will mark the end of my tenth year as a Domestic Violence Detective, which means that the Domestic Violence Unit in DeKalb County is also ten years old. It was started on January 1, 2006.

During those ten years, I’ve become a bit of a numbers person, mostly because my supervisors keep asking me for them, so I have some numbers for ten years of Domestic Violence in DeKalb.

In ten years we have had:

-- over 70,000 domestic violence police reports

-- over 200,000 domestic violence 911 calls

-- over 15,000 domestic violence arrests

This is my fifth year speaking, and I was having a little bit of difficulty coming up with what to talk about, so I conducted a highly scientific poll on Facebook to ask people what they want to hear from Law Enforcement about Domestic Violence. I did this with a little bit of trepidation, fearing that people might ask, “Why do police officers always get things wrong?” “Why aren’t police officers nicer to victims?” “Why don’t you put more people in jail,” or “Why don’t you put fewer people in jail.” But that did not happen.

Instead, my good friend and mentor told me, “Tell them about your unit. Tell them about what you do and how you help people.”

That I can do.

The Domestic Violence Unit in DeKalb County is comprised of four Detectives and one Sergeant. Together, those five people represent over 60 years of police experience. Each year in DeKalb County, we get over 25,000 domestic violence 911 calls, over 8,000 police reports, and over 2,000 domestic violence arrests, from which I have to decide which cases to assign to my Detectives.

This year alone they have worked over 570 cases, including over 200 Aggravated Assaults.

They have participated in helping develop and deliver strangulation training to every DeKalb officer as a part of the 2015 in-service cycle.

They are participating in a county-wide grant to address domestic violence in persons over the age of 50.

Domestic Violence looks different every day, to my detectives. It is intimate partner violence, of course, but it is also stalking, child abuse, sexual abuse, and elder abuse. And we’ve already covered how it is happening in every community.

I want to tell you a little bit about some of the cases that our Detectives have investigated this year, so that you get an understanding of what it’s like to be a Domestic Violence Detective, and what Domestic Violence looks like in DeKalb County.

This year Detectives investigated the case of a man who used strangulation to keep not only his wife, but also his own mother in terror. Despite multiple independent family witnesses of multiple incidents, nobody reported the abuse.

They investigated the case of a man who forced his victim to marry him in the belief that she would then not have to testify against him in court (this is not correct). When she threatened to call the police, he threatened to kill her dog. He systematically called her 100’s of times from the jail to instruct her on what to say when she came to court.

They investigated the case of an immigrant child who was so frightened of her abuser that it took over a month in DFCS custody before she would speak to anyone about the abuse.

They investigated the case of a 14-year-old girl who was removed from the hotel room where she was living with her mom, stepfather, and five brothers and sisters. At the time she was removed, this 14-year-old weighed 53 pounds.

And just last week they investigated and shut down a personal care home where the live-in caretaker was systematically exploiting and abusing the 5-8 elderly and disabled persons who lived there.

Each of these cases is being prosecuted because of the tireless work of case Detectives who refused to give up, even if the relationships were, to borrow a Facebook term, “complicated.”

Furthermore these same detectives, on at least three occasions in the past year, pooled their money to obtain a hotel room for a woman waiting for space in a shelter. They purchased food, diapers, formula and clothing for children involved in domestic violence incidents. They participated in clothing and toiletry drives for victims of domestic violence. They work tirelessly for survivors of domestic violence, even if those survivors are unable to do so themselves.

I am very proud of them.

But the best part about being a Domestic Violence Detective, and the best part of working in DeKalb County? We do not do this work alone, ever. I chose each of those cases above because in each of them, detectives reached out to other agencies within the criminal justice or non-profit system for aid, and were given it. I know that on any given day, my detectives can pick up the phone and call:

-- The Solicitor’s Office

-- the DA’s Office

-- The Sheriff’s Office

-- Probation

-- Judges

-- Non-profits

Because DeKalb County has built a coordinated community response to Domestic Violence that is remarkable in the State of Georgia.There is always room for improvement, and even now we are developing new methods which we can used to hold domestic violence offenders accountable. These will be rolled out over the next year.

As Ms. Boston mentioned earlier, I always hope that we will end domestic violence, and that my job will no longer be necessary. So I know you will forgive me if I close with this: I hope that I do not see you again next year.