Domestic Violence Prevention Rewarded

The efforts of three Orange County police departments to battle domestic violence received a major boost Thursday when President Clinton announced that they were among 336 communities nationwide to share more than $46 million in grants for innovative prevention strategies.

Westminster police will receive a $200,000 grant to intensify efforts to build cases against abusers when victims refuse to testify.

Huntington Beach police will get $198,505 and La Habra police $191,542 to strengthen the link between their departments and local shelters and victim service programs.

“We’re real excited about the potential,” said La Habra Police Chief Steven H. Stavely. “This allows us to take the typical police call that an officer thinks might bubble over into domestic violence and offer intervention and support services.

“It gives us a real opportunity to investigate domestic cases more completely.”

La Habra’s grant is to be shared with the Women’s Transitional Living Center Inc., a shelter for battered women and their children with headquarters in Orange.

La Habra’s program will be based on four components: a bilingual community awareness campaign, a bilingual prevention campaign to teach alternatives to violent behavior, the creation of a victims’ advocacy program, and a program that will ensure that each instance of domestic violence receives a response from police.

“This is a real systemic approach at trying to deal with a problem at a local level,” Stavely said.

Huntington Beach officers will work to provide counseling in conjunction with Community Services Inc., and Interval House Crisis Shelter.

The Police Department will set up an in-service training program for all patrol officers and supervisors to make them more aware of services available for victims of domestic violence.

Huntington Beach plans to use a community policing approach to combat the problem and work with a domestic-violence victims specialist within the department. That specialist will be responsible for contacting victims within 24 hours and providing services such as crisis intervention, follow-up counseling, emergency services and shelter, federal officials said.

“It will definitely strengthen our efforts,” said Sgt. Ron Burgess, who heads the department’s crimes against persons unit. “It’s a large problem. I’m getting reports across my desk every day regarding domestic violence. We’ve got two detectives specifically assigned to domestic violence and they are very busy.”

Westminster’s Police Department will work with Women’s Transitional Center Inc. The department will focus on developing prosecution strategies to address domestic violence. They will work to have a thorough assessment of each case in an effort to provide prosecutors with enough evidence to indict in cases where victims are unwilling to testify.

Departments were chosen for funding on the basis of their commitment to combining their existing community policing programs with domestic violence prevention efforts, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.