New Police Unit Puts Stress on Family Violence Cases

Police Chief Bob Burgreen announced Wednesday the creation of a Police Department division to make family and domestic violence a heightened priority for police.

The child abuse, missing persons and juvenile administration units will now be working together in the family protection division, in addition to the domestic violence coordinator and the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, Burgreen said.

The division, which will consist of about 50 people, will provide more of a focus for police so they can handle family violence better, Burgreen said.

The creation of the division signals the fact that the police are making family violence “a top priority,” Assistant Chief Cal Krosch said. “It was not necessarily a top priority before,” he added.

In the past, many child abusers went unchecked because attacks were not reported by police or not prosecuted when the victims refused to press charges, Krosch said.

Burgreen said that, when he was a patrol officer 30 years ago, an officer handled a domestic violence incident by saying, “Let’s just hold the noise down, and if I have to come back, someone’s going to jail.”

That didn’t work, Krosch said, and when the law changed in 1986, police were required to file reports about domestic violence incidents and law enforcement officials were able to prosecute abusers without the cooperation of the victim.

Since 1986, the Police Department has “basically been in compliance with the law, but not to the degree that any one of us has been comfortable with,” Krosch said. “We’re turning the screws a lot tighter.”

The division will provide a more coordinated, systematic approach to dealing with family violence, said Capt. Bill Taylor, who will head the division.

Communications should be better between units, and a common computer system will be established to track incidents of violence, abuse or other crimes within families, he said.

The child abuse and juvenile administration units are in the division because studies have shown that children who are abused or see abuse at home may grow up and become police problems themselves if the cycle of violence is not broken, Taylor said.

According to police statistics, in 1990 the child abuse unit handled 10,800 cases, and 5,972 domestic violence reports and incidents were filed.