Why our Family Protection Unit (FPU) worked.
Domestic violence related issues and oftentimes the criminal activity and trauma that it generates is something that continually plagues law enforcement, and regularly spawns repetitive police contact with those who are affected. This tends to drain a great deal of resources that many times produce a less than positive outcome. This became very clear to the Westminster Police (Orange County, Cal.) administration early on in the early 1990's. Therefore, a program, initially funded by a grant was developed, and the Family Protection Unit or FPU was born.
The FPU consisted of the following: Its own in-house district attorney. This allowed all of our criminal cases to be submitted to this D.A. who then vertically prosecuted the entire case once it was filed. He or she also reviewed all search warrants, and other court related paperwork. The unit had a stalking detective, a sex crimes detective, and a domestic violence detective. All the detectives were cross-trained in each others disciplines, which allowed any one detective to be able to handle any type of case that came into the units preview as well as be able to work as a team when needed. The detectives were also trained at that time in basic threat assessment techniques. At the time the unit was first developed I was both a robbery/homicide detective as well as the expert in the field of stalking.
The unit also had a senior county domestic violence probation officer, as well as a senior county social worker assigned the team. The probation officer made sure that anyone that was placed on formal probation complied with the requirements of their probation. The social worker, worked with families involved with domestic violence, as well as interviewed any children to ascertain if they had been abused either sexually or otherwise. If they had been sexually abused, they were sent to another county team that evaluated them. This also meant that they were interviewed by a specialist and a District Attorney who specialized in child sexual assault cases. This same team was also something that our sex crimes investigator would avail his or herself of.
The unit also had a victim advocate initially from the Women's Transitional Living Center. She was tasked with assisting any and all victims that came to the unit. If they needed to be temporarily housed they would handle that as well as make sure they got to their court hearings, and assisted them in obtaining a restraining order or other court paperwork. The victim advocate's primary goal was to limit the trauma experienced by the victim once they were taken into the FPU's purview. (Due to the fact, that our domestic violence team was also dealing with the children of a particular victim, we decided to reach out to specific groups that supplied various toys and other items that we could give to the kids when they arrived on our doorstep. My wife, a retired nurse and master quilter began to make quilts for these kids. I always found it interesting how a warm quilt seemed to calm a child after they wrapped themselves in one.)The unit had an analyst/secretary who scheduled all court assignments as well as tabulated statistics. The unit was also assigned a D.A. investigator as well as a county mental health worker who would respond with team members to evaluate clients or suspects.
Once the team was fully operational, the department noticed a dramatic drop in repeat domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking crimes. Our prosecution and conviction rate skyrocketed. By addressing the issue of stalking, we never had another homicide that resulted from a stalking scenario, as long as we knew a stalking was actually transpiring.
Of course, I realize that not all agencies in the United States can avail themselves of these types of units, but if at all possible, I would strongly recommend that those that can, do.