State database to help fight domestic abuse

BALLSTON SPA -- A new tool to fight domestic violence launched Wednesday will give law enforcement access to statewide records at a keystroke.

The state Division of Criminal Justice Services has created a searchable database for local reports of domestic disturbances that officials said will help law enforcement intervene earlier.

"A lot of domestic violence is pattern behavior, so there will be a series of incidents that often escalate into something more serious," said Amy Barasch, executive director of state Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence. "If police officers are able to connect those dots earlier . . . they can start to see patterns and can charge 'course of conduct crimes,' they can charge harassment, they can charge anything else they might have information about."

It also can help police officers make more informed referrals to victims' advocacy services, she said.

Though local law enforcement may have had their own databases, they weren't connected across different jurisdictions. The new system compiles domestic incident reports, or "DIRs," from the 57 counties outside New York City. Police file the reports after they respond to domestic disturbances, even if no charges are filed. Law enforcement agencies file 175,000 DIRs annually to the state, but until the division began scanning them and compiling them into the database last year, they were only stored as paper copies.

The state used $1.4 million in federal stimulus funding to create the system, which is available to police and sheriff's departments, prosecutors, and probation and parole officers who sign up.

The reports include information about past disturbances, including the presence of weapons, whether there have been past violations of orders of protection, and if someone had made violent or threatening actions.

John Byrne, spokesman for Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice, said in a statement that tools that facilitate information sharing between law enforcement agencies help them do a better job.

"This database will help police and prosecutors protect the most vulnerable in our society by ensuring that information about domestic incidents is available quickly, across jurisdictional lines to help stop and prevent future violence," Byrne said.

Advocates for domestic violence victims lauded the new database Wednesday.

"A lot of times when an incident happens, the victim might be very upset or frightened or distraught and it's difficult to convey everything right away," said Wendy Linsalata, director of advocacy services for the Suffolk County Coalition Against Domestic Violence. "If officers have a tool they can utilize to try to get a history, it would help them better assess the victim's safety."

Being able to assess the risk in a domestic disturbance "is critical in making decisions about what to do when police answer a call at a given address," said Sandy Oliva, executive director, Nassau County Coalition Against Domestic Violence. "It would surely be a means of protecting victims far more effectively."