Police Can’t Prevent Domestic Killing : It’s Naive and Deadly to Expect a Response to Most Threats

In the continuing media flurry over domestic violence, prompted by Maria Navarro’s grim and tragic murder, attention has focused on police protocol, training, sensitivity and action. The public cannot understand why a police car was not dispatched the moment that Navarro relayed her fears to the 911 operator. Police are paid to protect and serve. Why didn’t the Sheriff’s deputies respond immediately to the reported threat by her estranged husband? Why don’t police take domestic violence seriously?

Maria Navarro told police that her husband had threatened to kill her, and tried to convince them that he would carry out that threat. She knew that she was right. She was right. And the police refused to respond to her call.

The fact of the matter is that most of the threats arising from domestic disputes are just that: threats. Intended to frighten and intimidate, but seldom carried out.

If police were to sit outside the homes of people who have been threatened, there would be no one to respond when you hear a prowler in your home. There would be no one to respond when you see a robbery in progress and no one to respond when your life is visibly in immediate danger.

It is not a matter of police apathy. It is not a matter of police insensitivity toward domestic violence. It is not a matter of sexist police policy. It’s a matter of too much crime and too few police. It’s a matter of practicality.

Domestic violence has always existed. This decade can take credit for recognizing, defining, naming and publicizing it. State and national governments have given effort and money to research; statistics have been compiled. We now are aware that every six hours somewhere in this country, a woman is killed by her husband or boyfriend .

As a police officer, I can testify that police training in domestic violence is complete. It has to be; answering calls to scenes of domestic violence involves great risk to our own lives. The Los Angeles Police Department’s program is comprehensive and well-taught. We learn how to recognize cycles of domestic violence and how to counsel women who are victims of it. We are required to provide women with information on how to obtain restraining orders and with referral phone numbers for help ranging from psychological counseling to temporary shelter.

Further, court interpretations of California law have left very little to a street cop’s discretion. For example, if you punch your neighbor, leaving a bruise on his arm, the officer called to the scene may try to get you and your neighbor to resolve the situation without legal intervention. If your neighbor insists on prosecution, you will be arrested, taken to jail and booked on a misdemeanor charge of battery.

However, if a man hits his wife and a similar bruise appears on her, the police officer called to the scene has no option. Regardless of the wife’s desires or the husband’s explanations, he will be taken to jail immediately and booked on a felony charge of spousal abuse.

With the accused in jail, police action becomes secondary. He will be released by the court system in a matter of days or hours. It is up to the victim to prosecute, something abused women seldom do. Even when they do prosecute, the case is often resolved with a plea bargain or a token prison term, both of little use to women who justly fear for their lives.

Police officers strive to protect everyone in society, but we cannot always prevent. In Navarro’s case, had police been on the scene to stop her husband, they would have taken him into custody for, at most, carrying a concealed weapon. That would have kept him in jail overnight, assuming he couldn’t make bail. Anyone who believes that a person determined to kill another can reliably be prevented from doing so by the police--or anyone--is dreaming.

Success in dealing with domestic violence demands action from the abused women themselves and from the courts. Women who have been beaten or threatened too frequently decide to give the abuser another chance. All too often the cycle begins anew. These women must want to extricate themselves from abusive relationships and they must seek the prosecution of their abusers. Those who are abused must also take steps to protect themselves.

The legal system must really punish those men whose wives and girlfriends are brave enough to prosecute. At present, a man convicted of spousal abuse will spend little time in jail. Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner has made a strong statement by directing his office to prosecute gang members in Los Angeles County to the fullest extent of the law. If we are truly serious about protecting women from abusers and potential murderers, we must demand that prosecutors do the same.

It is difficult to say that a woman should have to leave her own home, but in the case of Navarro and many other abused women, that is the action most likely to keep them safe after a serious threat. Why did Navarro and her guests stay in her home, even when she believed her husband’s threat, and the police had explained they could not yet take action?

Maria Navarro was a victim. But police cannot be held accountable for the actions of a crazed person who has a gun. Looking to police to prevent and solve domestic violence is both naive and deadly.