Article on DV Law Enforcement Shows Why Current System is Dysfunctional
This article reveals the ineffectiveness of current DV programs that rely on law enforcement rather than counseling.
The couple appears to be in a mutually abusive relationship that does not involve violence. The police officer tells the woman she’s abusing the 911 hotline. But the useless dynamic continues, and the couple never gets the counseling it really needs. And the beat goes on…
Uniting Voices for Victims
Pulling his cruiser into the parking lot of a District Heights apartment complex, Deputy Jamal Dedier, a member of the Domestic Violence Unit in the Prince George’s County Office of the Sheriff, immediately realizes what lies ahead. He has been called at least three times to the location, where a woman and her live-in boyfriend get into explosive arguments.
On this occasion in late June, it was the boyfriend who called police, saying the woman was trying to throw their TV over the apartment’s balcony. She insists she only moved it to the deck because she was sick of him watching it all day.
“He has a gun up under his [car] seat, and he keeps saying he’s going to kill me,” she tells Dedier, who is accompanied on duty by Cpl. Danny McCamley, as she attempts to explain that her boyfriend is dangerous  not her.
The boyfriend left the apartment before the deputies arrived, so they say there is little they can do. They advise the woman on how to obtain a protective order from a court commissioner and how to go about evicting him from the apartment.
“How many times have you seen me?” Dedier asks.
“Too many times,” she responds.
“We shouldn’t know who you are,” Dedier says. “I don’t like telling people this, but you are abusing the 911 system.”
The woman says she will file for a protective order in a few days in an attempt to make it illegal for her boyfriend to be near her, and she leaves to stay at a friend’s house. Dedier says the woman has made the promise before, but has not followed through….
Source: http://www.gazette.net/stories/07222010/prinnew173125_32538.php
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