Breaking the Cycle : LAPD Program Helps Officers Step In Before Domestic Violence Escalates

Ann’s boyfriend yanked her hair so violently that he tore out a patch of her scalp four inches in diameter and then hit her so hard she nearly passed out. Semiconscious, she was only aware of a warm stream of blood flowing from her left eye.

When LAPD officers responded to Ann’s call at 2:40 a.m. on a recent Friday, they had been presented only two days earlier with the basic tools and tenets of a new police program designed for victims of domestic violence.

Equipped with what Hollywood Division police call a “domestic violence kit,” the officers were better prepared than before to meet the demands of being the first contact with the victim and suspect in a domestic battering.

For the first time, the officers were able to provide a victim with transportation to a shelter with the assurance that they would be able to find her safe harbor. For the first time, they could offer her detailed information, available in a variety of languages, about what she could do to protect herself and her children from further violence. For the first time, the officers had been provided with the means to document her injuries at the scene, ensuring that the proper evidence would be brought to bear when the case went to court.

These innovations are the result of a new domestic violence policy adopted by the Los Angeles Police Department this year, spearheaded by LAPD Cmdr. John White. The new guidelines, developed over the last year in conjunction with prosecutors and shelters for battered women, are an effort to break the cycle of violence that escalates from verbal to physical abuse and--in more than 100 cases last year--to murder.

“The trick is to get the services and intervention there before you have a homicide,” White said. “Also, if you do not interdict the violence, you get more abusers.”

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Domestic violence incidents account for a staggering number of emergency calls to police, as many as 40% in some areas of the city. Last year, LAPD officers responded to 43,000 domestic violence calls and made 9,000 arrests.

In April, 1994, the LAPD implemented the major assault crimes unit. Citywide, the LAPD has 102 investigators assigned to the new units, handling domestic violence, rape and child abuse.

The new program requires each division to work closely with domestic violence social services and implement a new protocol that involves officer training, investigations that have an expanded scope, and guidelines for dealing with victims.

Each of the 18 LAPD divisions, however, is free to develop its own program. Last year, the Southwest division ran a pilot program that united police with the Jenesse Center, which provides counseling and shelter for victims of domestic abuse.

So while officers in Hollywood respond to each call with a domestic violence kit, in the Harbor and Van Nuys divisions, domestic violence volunteers respond to weekend calls in a follow-up unit after officers have apprehended the suspect or made sure the home is safe. No program imitates the Southwest pilot program, but they all try to match its spirit.

“I can’t dictate standards and programs that will meet the needs of everyone,” White said. “Innovative cops will make it happen in each division.”

Getting battered women into shelters where they can receive counseling is one of the most important goals of the program. In the past, victims who requested transportation to a shelter often put officers in a difficult position. The officers wanted to help but did not have the time or resources to find the victim a place to stay. Officers might spend an hour or more calling shelter after shelter only to find that there were no beds available.

Hollywood officers now have only one phone call to make: to the Center for the Pacific Asian Family, which has agreed in advance to place the abused spouse.

“L.A. County domestic violence shelters have been trying for 10 years to establish working arrangements” with the LAPD, center official Julie Lee said. “Our role in the response team is that once the officers identify the woman as being in need of services, then we are the ones they contact for crisis counseling, shelter services or to situate the woman in a safe place.”

Ann’s ordeal is a prime example of how police hope their improved response to domestic violence calls will work. At his arraignment, Ann’s boyfriend pleaded guilty to beating her, was sentenced to 45 days in jail and required to undergo a year of counseling.

But police intervention in what many officers have traditionally seen as family disputes has not always been a priority. One of the biggest problems the department faces in implementing the new program is getting the full cooperation of field officers.

“Street cops don’t like to do this touchy-feely stuff,” said Detective Rick Papke, who heads Hollywood’s unit. They wonder “what’s that got to do with ass-kicking police work? They say, ‘Give me tools I can work with.’ So we want to give them nuts and bolts and tools they can use.”

The tool Papke refers to is the domestic violence kit assembled by Reserve Officer Anne Marie Lardeau. In 12 black plastic tool boxes (one for each neighborhood patrol car), are pamphlets translated into 11 languages, including Spanish, Vietnamese, Farsi, Russian and Hebrew. The pamphlets inform women of their rights and provide information on access to social services.

The brochures also include an “escape list” that tells victims what they will need to bring with them if they decide to flee their homes for a shelter. Too many women are forced to return home because they do not take identification, extra clothing or important personal possessions when they leave, Lardeau said.

Also in the kit are practical items for an officer’s use in the field: a teddy bear to comfort distressed children, a pamphlet for victims of sexual assault and blank Emergency Protective Order forms that can require a batterer to stay away from the victim, her residence and place of work for five days--enough time for her to apply for a lasting court order.

Perhaps the most crucial piece of equipment in the kit is a Polaroid camera for officers to document victim’s injuries in the field.

“Photos are immensely valuable,” said Assistant City Atty. Rob Pingle, recalling a case in which photographs and a strong narrative account filed by investigators resulted in a conviction without the testimony of a reluctant victim.

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The strategy seems to be working. Several detectives from the unit say they have noticed a significant increase in the number of photos being booked into evidence since the cameras were issued.

Despite the LAPD’s new policies, there is still evidence that some officers are insensitive to victims of domestic violence.

Ann said that although the new policy was in force and the investigating officers were sensitive, she got a cold response from some of the officers she met.

A day after the attack, a detective instructed her to wait at the reception desk for an investigator. People coming into the reception area stared at her injuries while she waited 45 minutes to talk to a detective. It turned out he was there all along.

“I was beginning to feel like I did something wrong,” she said. “I wouldn’t have known they’d had the training. They’re just not skilled in dealing with people.”

Everyone involved in the new program emphasizes that it is an evolving process. Lardeau refers to the Hollywood protocol as “a living document” and Papke is determined to get feedback from shelters, officers on the beat and victims to improve Hollywood’s response.

Despite her concerns, Ann is glad to know that her boyfriend will get help in dealing with his temper and his attitudes toward women.

“Once he got so mad at me that he broke the windshield of my car with his fist,” she said. “But he never hit me before and he will never hit me again.”